MUSLIM HATE IN NIGERIA 


Nigeria: 140 more Christian children kidnapped

 

Jul 6th, 2021

Source: Release International

 

As gunmen kidnap more than 140 Christian schoolchildren in Nigeria, Release International is again urging the international community to call Nigeria to account over its appalling failure to protect its Christian minority in the north.

 

The gunmen, suspected to be Fulani militants, overcame security guards and forced their way into Bethel Baptist boarding school in Kaduna at 2am on Monday morning. They kidnapped most of 180 students who attend the school. A few managed to escape, according to reports.

 

The exact numbers of high school students abducted is still unknown. Estimates vary from 140 to 164.

 

News agency AFP says this is the fourth mass school kidnapping in Kaduna state since December. It's estimated that more Christians are kidnapped in Nigeria than any other country in the world.

 

"Our hearts and prayers go out for these kidnapped children and their parents. God knows what they are going through," says Paul Robinson, CEO of UK-based Release International, which supports persecuted Christians around the world.

 

"This appalling failure by Nigeria to protect its Christian citizens has to stop. The international community must compel Nigeria to effective action to protect its vulnerable Christian minority in the North against attacks from extremists."

 

The Nigerian government has blamed bandits for the growing numbers of kidnappings and attacks against its Christian population. But international observers recognise a religious dimension behind many of the attacks.

 

The most likely perpetrators are Fulani herdsmen, whose grazing land is being eroded by desertification.

 

"If so, by attacking Christians, they are following in the footsteps of Islamist militants, including Boko Haram and ISWAP (Islamic State West African Province)," says Paul Robinsonl.

 

The declared aim of Boko Haram is to turn Nigeria into an Islamic state. It has ordered its supporters to kill Christians.

 

"By attacking Christians in the north and middle belts of Nigeria, the Fulani militants are serving the same jihadist agenda as these Islamist terror groups. And the Nigerian government is simply not doing enough to protect its Christian citizens who are under attack. Pressure must be brought to bear on Nigeria from the international community." Robinson added. 

 

Three recent reports confirm the growing spread of violence against Christians in Nigeria.

 

According to the Nigerian NGO Intersociety, in the four months from January to April 2021 Nigeria 'lost no fewer than 1,470 Christians… the highest number recorded since 2014'.

 

And separate reports by the US State Department and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) singled out Nigeria as a 'country of particular concern for tolerating severe violations of religious freedom'.

 

According to Intersociety, 2,200 Nigerian Christians were abducted between January and April this year. Of those 220 are believed to have been murdered. Intersociety say Fulani militants killed more than 800 Christians, in a conflict often simplistically characterised as clashes over resources between herders and farmers.

 

According to the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief there is a religious dimension behind the growing violence against Christians in the North and Middle Belts of Nigeria. It says Fulani militants have adopted 'a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP [Islamic State West Africa Province], and demonstrated a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity.'

 

That religious dimension is reiterated in the 2021 Annual Report of the USCIRF. It notes that Boko Haram fighters beheaded the local chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Adamawa State because he refused to renounce his faith, while ISWAP fighters executed five aid workers as a warning to "all those being used by infidels to convert Muslims to Christianity".

 

And in a separate report, the US State Department cites Nigerian Minister of Culture Lai Mohammed, who declared Boko Haram and ISIS fighters 'have started targeting Christians and Christian villages... to trigger a religious war and throw the nation into chaos.'

 

The US State Department also quotes the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Reverend Samson Ayokunle, who warns Fulani militants and others share 'a goal to Islamise Nigeria'.

 

Release International is concerned about attempts to simplify and reduce the causes of conflict to little more than a tussle over resources.

 

"To characterise this as just a farmer/herder conflict is a gross over-simplification," says Paul Robinson.

 

"Boko Haram has publicly called for the killing of Christians and stated its aim to Islamie the whole of Nigeria. Fulani militants are now killing more Christians than Boko Haram fighters. In so doing, they appear to be serving the same Islamist agenda.

 

"This has been going on for far too long. How many more innocent men, women and children need to suffer before something is done? The world must wake up to what is happening in the most populous nation in Africa."

 

Release International is active in some 25 countries around the world, supporting pastors, Christian prisoners and their families; supplying Christian literature and Bibles, and working for justice.

 

 

Herdsmen Attacks Kill 37 Christians in Plateau State, Nigeria

 

Pastor says terrorists roam freely in presence of security personnel.

 

May 26, 2021 

 

JOS, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Fulani herdsmen on Sunday (May 23) killed 14 Christians in a village near Jos, Plateau state and eight others in another village, sources said.

 

Herdsmen attacked Kwi village, Riyom County, near Jos, at about 11 p.m., said area resident Solomon Mandiks, a Christian rights activist.

 

“Fourteen Christians were butchered to death, including children,” Mandiks told Morning Star News in a text message. “Eight members of one family have all been killed. This is beside an additional six other Christians killed by the herdsmen in the village.”

 

Earlier that night in Dong village, Jos North County, armed herdsmen attacking at 8 p.m. killed eight Christians, area residents said. Asabe Samuel, 60-year-old member of the local Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) congregation, said in an interview at her home that a large number of herdsmen invaded as residents were about to go to sleep.

 

“I was by the central area of the village, which has shops and serves as a market, when I heard Fulani gunmen shooting around my house,” Samuel told Morning Star News. “This forced us to run to hide.”

 

As the sounds of gunshot were coming from the direction of her house, others advised her not to return home, she said.

 

“I still rushed to my house, and just as I was getting closer to my house, I found that one Istifanus Shehu, 40, a member of COCIN [Church of Christ in Nations] who has had mental health challenges, was shot dead, and his corpse was lying beside my house,” Samuel said. “We heard the attackers retreating and shouting ‘Allahu Akbar [Allah is greater].’ The herdsmen were also communicating with themselves in the Fulani language.”

 

After they retreated, residents found eight Christians were killed in attacks on four houses, she said. Besides Shehu, she identified those slain as Ruth Adamu, 20, an ECWA member; Naomi Adamu, 40, of the ECWA; Friday Danladi Riya, 22, of the ECWA; Awuki Matthew, 28, Catholic; Gospel Matthew, 4, Catholic; PraiseGod Matthew, 2, Catholic; and one identified only as Chinyere of St. Jude’s Anglican  Church.

 

“Awuki Matthew was killed alongside her two daughters, Gospel Matthew and PraiseGod Matthew, leaving behind her husband, who’s blind,” she said. “Who will care for this blind man, and how will he cope with life without his wife and children?”

 

Monday Auta, an ECWA member and her neighbor, was shot in his shoulder and was receiving hospital treatment, she said, adding that Ruth Adamu and daughter Naomi Adamu were her neighbors and members of her ECWA church.

 

The late Shehu’s sister, Jummai Shehu, a 32-year-old COCIN member, said her brother was visiting the house of Samuel, where they once lived.

 

“The armed Fulani herdsmen spotted him and shot him dead,” she said, weeping. “I feel very sad about the way my brother was killed in cold blood. Why must we live in fear every day, not knowing the evil that awaits us as Christians in this country?”

 

The pastor of the ECWA church in Dong, Jonathan Kyoomnom Bala, said police did not show up until 10 a.m. the next day.

 

“Some government officials came also this morning only at 10 a.m.,” Pastor Bala told Morning Star News. “These herdsmen carried out the attack on us for about 40 minutes and left without intervention from soldiers or the police.”

 

Security agencies’ lack of action was concerning, he said.

 

“While the attack was going on, I phoned one of the security agents, and he told me they were doing something about it, but they did nothing,” Pastor Bala said. “It’s traumatic to witness such deadly incidents of this nature.

 

“Last week the herdsmen were here in the community roaming around without restraint by security agents stationed around the community, and yet, even in the presence of soldiers and police personnel, the attackers invaded the community and embarked on a killing spree. And some of the attackers are known to be terrorists who have been brought in from other countries to collaborate with the herdsmen to attack Christians.”

 

As a pastor, he said, he has wondered why the violence goes unchecked.

 

“Throughout last night I couldn’t sleep because members I minister to were killed in gruesome manner, and for not committing any crimes except being Christians,” Pastor Bala told Morning Star News. “Has it now become a crime to profess Jesus Christ?”

 

Many Christians have been displaced as a result of this attack, adversely affecting ministry there, he said.

 

“What the Nigerian government should note is that when the people have lost faith in security agencies and are forced to resort to self-help to defend themselves, there’ll be anarchy in the land,” he said.

 

The pastor listed churches affected by herdsmen attacks in the area as the ECWA, COCIN, Roman Catholic, Anglican Communion, Baptist Church, Assemblies of God Church, Living Faith Church, and The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).

 

April Attacks

 

Prior attacks in Plateau state in April took the lives of at least 15 other Christians.

 

Herdsmen on April 30 attacked Ta-Hoss village, Riyom County, killing Emmanuel Joshua, a 32-year-old Christian, rights advocate Mandiks said.

 

Irmiya James, a leader of the Christian community in the village, told Mandiks that he received a distress call at 3 p.m. that Fulani had shot dead a Christian on Tahoss-Ganawuri Road.

 

“On getting to the scene, we found Mr. Emmanuel Joshua in a pool of blood, and his motorcycle was taken away by the Fulani assailants,” James told Mandiks.

 

Fulani militia on April 30 attacked Sopp village, Riyom County, wounding seven people while hundreds of people already displaced from Kak village in 2012 were forced to flee again from their camp for Internally Displaced Persons, Mandiks said.

 

Joshua Choji, a Christian receiving treatment at Vom Christian Hospital, told Mandiks that he and others went to clear farmlands when 50 Fulani herdsmen emerged from a nearby stream.

 

“All I can remember is that four of the herdsmen attacked me, while others also attacked other members of our community,” Choji told Mandiks. “We cried out for help, but none came for our rescue. I was battered on my head and also sustained a fracture on my left hand.”

 

Other Christians injured were John Makama, Danladi Dazam, Chuwang Kara, Alpha Yakubu, Daniel Danbwarang and Ibrahim Jatau, Mandiks said.

 

In predominantly Christian Baten village, Riyom County, herdsmen attacked on April 25 at about 8 p.m., said area resident Pam Choji.

 

“We had received information that Fulani militias would be coming to invade our village, Baten,” Choji said. “That made us intensify vigilance and, graciously, no one was hurt when the armed Muslim Fulani herdsmen attacked us.”

 

Choji said the half-hour attack forced area residents to flee their homes.

 

In Wereng village, Riyom County, herdsmen attacked on April 15, killing six Christians and sending two others for hospital treatment, said Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri, director of the Emancipation Centre for Crisis Victims in Nigeria (ECCVN). He identified those slain as Chuwang Williams, 29; Bulus Danbom, 41; Peter Williams, 39; Dung Gyang, 60; Dachung Gara, 44; and Davou Dachung, 45. Injured were Davou Jatau and Gyang Jatau.

 

Residents in nearby Kuru village, Jos South County, said herdsmen attacked on April 9, killing eight Christians.

 

Nigeria was the country with the most Christians killed for their faith last year (November 2019-October 2020), at 3,530, up from 1,350 in 2019, according to Open Doors’ 2021 World Watch List report. In overall violence, Nigeria was second only to Pakistan, and it trailed only China in the number of churches attacked or closed, 270, according to the list.

 

Nigeria led the world in number of kidnapped Christians last year with 990. In this year’s World Watch List list of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Nigeria broke into the top 10 for the first time, jumping to No. 9 from No. 12 the previous year.

 

Numbering in the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise hundreds of clans of many different lineages who do not hold extremist views, but some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist ideology, the United Kingdom’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted in a recent report.

 

“They adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP [Islamic State West Africa Province] and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity,” the APPG report states.

 

Christian leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are inspired by their desire to forcefully take over Christians’ lands and impose Islam as desertification has made it difficult for them to sustain their herds.

 

The APPG report noted that tribal loyalties cannot be overlooked.

 

“In 2015, Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani, was elected president of Nigeria,” the group reported. “He has done virtually nothing to address the behavior of his fellow tribesmen in the Middle Belt and in the south of the country.”

 

The U.S. State Department on Dec. 7 added Nigeria to its list of Countries of Particular Concern for engaging in or tolerating “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.” Nigeria joined Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan on the list.

 

In a more recent category of non-state actors, the State Department also designated ISWAP, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, Al-Qaeda, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Houthis, ISIS, ISIS-Greater Sahara, Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, and the Taliban as “Entities of Particular Concern.”

 

On Dec. 10 the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, issued a statement calling for investigation into crimes against humanity in Nigeria.

 

 

Boko Haram Kills at Least 43 Farmworkers in Nigeria, Militia Says

 

By Agence France-Presse

November 28, 2020

 

MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA - Boko Haram fighters killed at least 43 farmworkers and injured six in rice fields near the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri on Saturday, anti-jihadist militia told AFP.

 

The assailants tied up the agricultural workers and slit their throats in the village of Koshobe, the militia said.

 

"We have recovered 43 dead bodies, all of them slaughtered, along with six others with serious injuries," said militia leader Babakura Kolo, who helped the survivors.

"It is no doubt the handiwork of Boko Haram, who operate in the area and frequently attack farmers."

 

The victims were laborers from Sokoto state in northwest Nigeria, roughly 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) away, who had traveled to the northeast to find work, said Ibrahim Liman, another militiaman who gave the same toll.

 

"There were 60 farmers who were contracted to harvest ... the rice fields. Forty-three were slaughtered, with six injured," Liman said.

 

Eight others were missing, presumed to have been kidnapped by the jihadists, he said.

 

The bodies were taken to Zabarmari village, two kilometers away, where they would be kept ahead of burial Sunday, said resident Mala Bunu, who took part in the search-and-rescue operation.

 

Last month, Boko Haram militants slaughtered 22 farmers working in their irrigation fields near Maiduguri in two separate incidents.

 

Boko Haram and ISWAP, its IS-linked rival, have increasingly targeted loggers, herders and fishermen in their violent campaign, accusing them of spying and passing information to the military and the local militia fighting them.

 

At least 36,000 people have been killed in the jihadist conflict, which has displaced around 2 million people since 2009.

 

The violence has also spread into neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a regional military coalition to fight the militants.

 

The attack took place as voters went to the polls in local elections in Borno State.

 

The elections had been repeatedly postponed because of an increase in attacks by Boko Haram and ISWAP.

 

 

Boko Haram kills at least 110 civilians in this year’s 'most violent direct' attack

 

By Anugrah Kumar

Christian Post 

NOVEMBER 30, 2020 

 

Armed men on motorcycles, believed to be from the Boko Haram terrorist group, killed at least 110 farmworkers in rice fields in Nigeria’s conflict-hit Borno state. A United Nations official called it “the most violent direct attack against innocent civilians this year.”

 

“I am outraged and horrified by the gruesome attack against civilians,” Edward Kallon, the U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, said about the assault in the village of Koshobe and other rural communities near the northeast city of Maiduguri on Saturday, according to Bloomberg.

 

“At least 110 civilians were ruthlessly killed and many others were wounded in this attack,” the official said.

 

Kallon feared that several women may have been kidnapped.

 

“I call for the perpetrators of this heinous and senseless act to be brought to justice,” he added.

 

Boko Haram and its faction, the Islamic State in West Africa Province, are known to be active in the area.

 

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the killing of “our hard-working farmers by terrorists in Borno state,” according to Al Jazeera.

 

“The entire country,” he said, “is hurt by these senseless killings.”

 

Dozens of the bodies were taken a little more than a mile away to Zabarmari village for burial on Sunday, a resident Mala Bunu, who took part in the search-and-rescue operation, told AFP.

 

Earlier this month, suspected Boko Haram men reportedly killed 12 Christians, including a pastor, and kidnapped nine women and young girls in an attack in the same state, Morning Star News, a nonprofit news organization that covers global Christian persecution, reported.

 

Boko Haram is one of the world’s deadliest terrorist groups as it has engaged in its insurgency in northeast Nigeria and the Lake Chad region for over a decade. The group has killed and abducted thousands of people over the years.

 

The United Nations estimates that over 3.4 million people in Nigeria have been displaced due to the Islamic extremist violence in the northeast and violence in the country’s Middle Belt carried out by radicals from the herding community. The U.N.’s tally includes 2.7 million people who have been displaced because of extremist violence in the country’s northeast.

 

 

At least 121 Christians dead in spate of savage Fulani militant attacks in Nigeria

 

Barnabas Fund

August 3, 2020

 

In a spate of Fulani militant attacks in July on predominantly Christian villages in southern Kaduna State, Nigeria, at least 121 people were killed and thousands displaced.

 

The spree of bloodshed began on 10 July with a three-day onslaught on the Chibob farming community in Gora wardthat left 22 dead. Then Fulani militants struck in attacks in Kauru local government area that saw at least 38 murdered in Kagoro town in the week of 19 July, with 32 killed in Kukum Daji and Gora Gan in separate attacks.

 

On 22 July, armed with knives and machetes, Fulani militants broke into homes in the mainly-Christian village of Kizachi, southern Kaduna State, murdering three children and two young people.

 

Those killed in Kizachi were: 

Kefas Monday, 17

Lydia Monday, 14

Jummai, 9 

Giwa Thomas, 14

Living Yohanna, 27

 

In a horrific night attack during a torrential rain storm on 23 July, at least seven Christians died in Doka Avong Village, Kaduna State, as militants brutally hacked unarmed men and women and children to death with machetes.

 

This was the second attack on the village within days, with seven murdered in an attack days earlier on 20 July. 

 

At the time of writing, some injured survivors remain in critical condition in hospital. Many others are reported missing.

 

The attackers also burnt out a number of homes. 

 

Those killed in Doka Avong were:

John Mallam, 80

Albarka Mallam, 85

Jumare Sule, 76

Hannatu Garba, 55

Thaddeus Albarka, 32

Luvinus Danmori, 52  

Daniel Mukadas, 70

 

On 24 July, in the town of Zipak also in Kaduna State, at least ten Christians died, ranging from five-years-old to 75, in a Fulani militant attack. The militants’ spree of looting, vandalism and arson concluded with the brutal murders, despite the presence of army, police and paramilitary units stationed just a mile away. 

 

Those killed in Zipak were:

Joel Cephas, 5

Kingsley Raphael, 28

Katung Kantiock, 60

Luka Garba, 75

Victor Ishaya, 22

Madam Dakaci, 52

Kuyet Yayock, 25

Cecelia Audu, 65

Matina Dauda, 70

Yanasan Dauda, 70

 

A curfew was imposed across Jemma Local Government Area after the Zipak raid. But the Fulani militants returned on 25 July to terrorise the shocked community as it mourned those murdered the previous day. 

 

 

Islamic militants kill at least 60 people in north-east Nigeria

 

The attack in Borno state follows the massacre of 69 villagers in a raid in the same area

 

Reuters

Sat 13 Jun 2020

 

Islamic militants have killed at least 20 soldiers and more than 40 civilians and injured hundreds in twin attacks in north-east Nigeria, residents and a civilian task force fighter said.

The attacks, in the Monguno and Nganzai districts of Borno state, came just days after militants killed at least 69 people in a raid on a village in a third area, Gubio.

 

Two humanitarian workers and three residents told Reuters that militants armed with heavy weaponry including rocket launchers arrived in Monguno, a hub for international non-governmental organisations, at roughly 11am local time. They overran government forces, taking some casualties but killing at least 20 soldiers and roaming the area for three hours.

 

The sources said hundreds of civilians were injured in the crossfire, overwhelming the local hospital and forcing some of the injured to lay outside the facility awaiting help.

 

The sources said the militants also set fire to the local police station and burned down the United Nations’ humanitarian hub in the area, although a UN spokesperson said the facility sustained only light damage.

 

Fighters distributed letters to residents, in the local Hausa language, warning them not to work with the military, white Christian westerners or other “non-believers”.

 

Militants also entered Nganzai at about the same time on Saturday, according to two residents and one Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) fighter. They arrived on motorcycles and in pickup trucks and killed more than 40 residents, the sources said.

 

A military spokesman did not answer calls for comment on the attacks. UN officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

 

Boko Haram and its offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), have killed thousands and displaced millions in northeastern Nigeria. ISWAP claimed the two Saturday attacks, and the Gubio attack.

 

 

81 killed in bloody Boko Haram attack in Nigerian village

 

By Bukola Adebayo and Isaac Abrak, CNN

Wed June 10, 2020

 

Lagos, Nigeria (CNN)At least 81 people were killed in an attack on a village by suspected Boko Haram militants in northeast Nigeria, the Borno state government said in a statement released to CNN Wednesday.

 

Residents said the men attacked the village in armored tanks and trucks filled with guns, according to the government's statement. 

 

Seven people, including the village head, children and women, were abducted from the Faduma Kolomdi community, described as a nomadic town in northern Borno. 

 

Residents reported that the men gathered the villagers on Tuesday morning and started shooting in the incident which lasted several hours.

 

One of the villagers who survived the onslaught told the authorities that the attackers came under the cover of being Islamic teachers. 

 

"They gathered us and said they wanted to deliver religious sermon to us. They asked us to submit whatever arm we had. Some villagers gave up their ... guns, bow, and arrows. 

 

"Suddenly, they started shooting at will. Even children and women were not spared, Many were shot at close range," the man, who was not named, said in the statement. 

 

"We have buried 49 corpses here while another 32 corpses were taken away by families from the villages around us. 

 

"The insurgents abducted seven persons, including our village head. They went away with 400 cattle," the man added.

 

Tuesday's attack involving women and children was carried out by Boko Haram and ISWAP, or Islamic State West Africa Province, members operating terrorist sleeper cells in communities in the area, Nigeria military spokesman Sagir Musa said in a statement.

 

A large number of troops have also been sent to the area to bolster the military's response to the attack, the army said. 

 

"The Nigerian Army is committed to investigating the circumstances of these callous attacks by desperate Boko Haram criminals and the bandits on innocent civilians," Musa said.

 

The villagers accounts were corroborated by former district head Zanna Gubio who told CNN he transported some of the victims to the hospital with his vehicle. 

 

He said the attacks happened on Tuesday morning when some of the herders were feeding their cattle and the militants summoned them from the fields."My people were feeding their cattle when Boko Haram ask them to gather together, and then they started shooting them, they burial lasted for the whole night to the early hours of this morning," he added.

 

Borno state governor Babagana Zulum visited the village on Wednesday and called on the Nigerian army to strengthen its operations to put an end to the militants' onslaught on border communities in the state.

 

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 3 million people have been displaced during the more than a decade-long Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria's northeast.

 

The group's fighters have unleashed carnage, burning mosques, communities and attacking military outposts in the region. 

 

More than 30 travelers were killed when Boko Haram militants set fire to vehicles at a roadblock in Auno town in Borno state in February.

 

 

350 Nigerian Christians killed in first 2 months of 2020: NGO report

 

Group estimates at least 11,500 Nigerian Christians killed since June 2015

Christian Post

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2020

 

A Nigerian civil society organization claims that no fewer than 350 Christians have been killed across the West African country since the start of 2020 and estimates that about 11,500 Christians have been killed since 2015. 

 

“Nigeria has fully become a killing field of defenseless Christians,” the Anambra-based nongovernmental organization International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) said this week in a new special report, titled “Nigeria: A Killing Field Of Defenseless Christians.” 

 

“Available statistics have shown that between 11,500 and 12,000 Christian deaths were recorded in the past 57 months or since June 2015 when the present central government of Nigeria came on board. Out of this figure, Jihadist Fulani herdsmen accounted for 7,400 Christian deaths, Boko Haram 4,000 and the ‘Highway Bandits’ 150-200.”

 

The organization, which is headed by Christian criminologist Emeka Umeagbalasi, has monitored violence against Christians in Nigeria since 2010 through a team of criminologists, lawyers, journalists, security, and peace and conflict studies graduates.

 

Nigeria has been marred by violence in the last decade-plus due to the rise of extremist organizations in the northeast like Boko Haram and its splinter group, the Islamic State’s West Africa Province. 

 

In recent years, massacres carried out by radicalized Fulani herders against predominantly Christian farming villages in Nigeria’s Middle Belt have also driven communities from their homes.

 

Additionally, bandit gangs have been responsible for carrying out kidnappings along some major highways.

 

The United Nations estimates that about 2 million people have been internally displaced across Nigeria and 11 million people in need of assistance. An additional 550,000 are said to be displaced in neighboring countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger. 

 

“While 100 percent of the victims of Jihadist Herdsmen attacks across Nigeria are Christians, the estimated 4,000 Christians killed by Boko Haram were part of the estimated 6,000 [people in total] massacred by the sect since June 2015,” the report explains. 

 

“Generally, many, if not most of the victims of Boko Haram/ISWAP attacks in Nigeria’s Northeast are Christians. On the part of ‘Bandits/Highway Kidnappers’ in Northern Nigeria, most of their rural victims are Muslims while many, if not most, of their roadside victims are Christians traveling to northern or southern parts of the country using the Birnin-Gwari Federal Road, near Kaduna, etc.” 

 

For its monitoring and documentation, Intersociety relies on what it deems to be credible local and foreign media reports, government accounts, international rights groups, eyewitness accounts and reports from various Christian bodies in the country. 

 

Intersociety reports that Fulani herdsmen accounted for 250 of the 350 deaths recorded in January and February 2020 while Boko Haram and highway bandit gangs are responsible for 100 deaths. 

 

In the past two months, Intersociety reports that radical Fulani militants have carried out attacks in Nasarawa, Adamawa and Edo in addition to some other locations throughout the country. 

 

Last year, Intersociety reported that no fewer than 2,400 Christians were killed by Fulani radicals in 2018. In 2019, according to the group, between 1,000 to 1,200 Christians were killed by Fulani attackers. 

 

While reports have indicated an increase in deadly Boko Haram attacks beginning in December 2019, Intersociety noted that Boko Haram attacks targeting Christians since January 2020 intensified in Borno, Adamawa and Taraba States.

 

“[The attacks are] claiming between 50 and 70 Christian lives and loss of churches and other buildings belonging to Christians,” the report explains, adding that Boko Haram was responsible for killing at least 1,000 citizens in 2019. 

 

Additionally, between 100 and 150 Christian travelers were said to have been abducted on highways since the beginning of the year. 

 

“The killings targeted at Christians in Nigeria have continued into the first week of March 2020 leading to hacking to death of over a dozen more,” the report reads. “Among the worst hit in the latest round of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen attacks are Plateau State with 70-80 deaths, Kaduna [with] 50 deaths, Kogi [with] 30 deaths, Benue [with] 15-20, Delta [with] 16 and Taraba [with] 10.”

 

In the past 57 months, no fewer than 20 clergymen (including eight Catholic priests and seminarians) have been hacked to death, while no less than 50 were abducted or kidnapped, Intersociety reported.

 

Earlier this year, Boko Haram kidnapped and then executed the Rev. Lawan Andimi, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria’s chapter in the Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa state.  

 

Other slain religious leaders killed in Nigeria in the past 12 months include the Revs. Clement Ugwu and Paul Offu. 

 

Intersociety also estimated that over 2,000 churches and Christian worship centers have been burned since June 2015, with Fulani herdsmen being responsible for about 1,500 and Boko Haram accounting for 500. 

 

Churches in Benue, Plateau and southern Kaduna states were among the most targeted by Fulani radicals. 

 

“In eight years, between 2011 and 2019, Benue State had lost 600 churches and other Christian worship centers to Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen," the report states.

 

Intersociety’s claim that most of the people killed by Boko Haram are Christian contradicts data given out by Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari in early February. 

 

In an op-ed, Buhari stated that “90 percent of all Boko Haram’s victims have been Muslims.” Buhari claimed that the “now-failing terrorists have targeted the vulnerable, the religious, the non-religious, the young and the old without discrimination.”

 

However, weeks later, a member of the Nigerian government, Minister of Information Alhaji Lai Mohammed, acknowledged that terrorists are focusing their attacks on Christians, noting that in the past, that was not the case. 

 

"They have started targeting Christians and Christian villages for a specific reason, which is to trigger a religious war and throw the nation into chaos," he said while distancing the perpetrators from Muslims and noting that Muslims have also been victimized.

 

Death toll statistics in Nigeria can vary depending on which organization is providing them because of the lack of adequate government record-keeping, International Committee on Nigeria co-founder Stephen Enada previously told The Christian Post. 

 

Enada, who fled to the United States in 2016 after his cousin was killed by Fulani radicals, believes that reported death tolls should be construed as nothing more than estimations. 

 

“When you talk about data mining statistics, Nigeria doesn’t even have a national data record to even say [what is] our population,” Enada explained at the time. “So sometimes, if somebody is killed, you don’t even have a way to trace a person to his family outside his community because we don’t have data.”

 

“Because we don’t have such data, it is very complicated. Sometimes, when people are killed, they will just do a mass burial where there is no autopsy, post mortem, no record. If you go to these communities, you will see that they don’t have any record for the people who died. That is what we are working with.”

 

Last November, the U.K.-based NGO Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust estimated after a fact-finding mission that at least 1,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria from January 2019 until November 2019.

 

HART, founded by Parliament member Baroness Caroline Cox, estimated that at least 6,000 Christians were killed since 2015. 

 

A HART spokesperson clarified to CP that the 1,000-deaths estimation counts “predominantly people killed in Plateau, Southern Kaduna and Taraba states by Fulani Herdsmen” but also includes some killings by Boko Haram in Borno state.

 

The HART spokesperson added that the estimation was partly based on reports from the Kaduna state government and reports from the Plateau state. HART's estimations also include Boko Haram’s killing of security officers and soldiers believed to be Christians. 

 

 

Violence in Plateau State, Nigeria Escalates with more Muslim Fulani Herdsmen Attacks

 

At least 32 Christians killed in assaults this week. 

January 30, 2020 

 

JOS, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – At least 32 people were killed and a pastor’s house and church building were burned down in two nights of attacks this week by Muslim Fulani herdsmen in Plateau state, Nigeria, sources said.

 

The Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) building and home were destroyed in an attack on predominantly Christian Marish village on Monday evening (Jan. 27), one of three communities in Bokkos County hit in armed assaults that began the previous evening, area residents said. The attacks were the latest bloodshed in an escalation of violence in Plateau state, where herdsmen killed Christians in Riyom and Mangu counties earlier this month.

 

Herdsmen killed 17 people in Marish and Ruboi villages on Monday after killing 15 people in an attack on Kwatas on Sunday (Jan. 26), Titus Ayuba Alams, former speaker of the Plateau state House of Assembly, told Morning Star News.

 

“The attacks took place between the hours of 7 p.m. and 4 a.m. on Kwatas on Sunday, and also on Monday within the same time frame on Ruboi and Marish by the herdsmen,” Alam said.

 

Five people were wounded in the attacks and several houses were burned, area resident Theophilus Mancha told Morning Star News.

 

“A pregnant woman and 16 others have been killed,” Mancha said.

 

Kwatas, Marish and Ruboi are suburbs of Bokkos town, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) southwest of Plateau State University, Bokkos.

 

Kelly Kanang, another area resident, confirmed that Fulani herdsmen launched the attacks.

 

Benjamin Dogo of Kwatas informed Morning Star News in a text message, “Our people have been killed again. About 15 of the dead have been evacuated to the mortuary along with many others that sustained injuries during the attack on Sunday night.”

 

State police said 13 persons were killed and five injured in the attack on Kwatas. Police spokesman Ubah Gabriel Ogaba on Monday confirmed the attack by “unknown gunmen” on Kwatas in a press statement.

 

Ruboi and Marish were attacked after police issued the statement, and officers have provided no details on those attacks.

Plateau Gov. Simon Lalong condemned the attacks on the Christian communities in a statement through press spokesman Makut Macham.

 

“My heart again bleeds by this tragedy as lives of innocent citizens are cut short for no reason,” reads the statement issued on Monday. “Security agencies must go after those who are behind these attacks and their sponsors so they can face the law and be taught a lesson.”

 

Sen. Istifanus Gyang, deputy chairman of the Nigerian Senate Committee on Defense, said attacks on the Christian communities raise questions on the readiness of security agencies to protect people against herdsmen onslaughts.

 

“Only last week, Kombun village in Mangu LGA was attacked and now, it is Kwatas, Marish, and Ruboi villages in neighboring Bokkos LGA,” he said.

 

Nigeria ranked 12th on Open Doors’ 2020 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution but second in the number of Christians killed for their faith, behind Pakistan.

 

 

30 Killed in Northeast Nigeria Bomb Blast on Crowded Bridge

By Reuters

January 06, 2020 

 

At least 30 people were killed in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno after an improvised explosive device detonated on a bridge, sources told Reuters on Monday.

 

The bomb detonated at roughly 5 p.m. local time (1600 GMT) on a crowded bridge in the market town of Gamboru that leads into neighboring Cameroon.

 

Witnesses in the market town said more than 35 injured people were taken to the local hospital following the attack.

 

"It is an unfortunate day for us to witness this frustrating and devastating incident in our community," eyewitness Modu Ali Said told Reuters.

 

"I just heard a loud sound of explosions, before I realized I saw many of our friends and colleagues were killed," Said added.

Two sources with the Civilian Joint Task Force, a group of citizens formed to fight Boko Haram, confirmed the attack and the early death toll estimates.

 

No group immediately took responsibility. Both Boko Haram and the regional offshoot of Islamic State, known as ISWAP, are active in the area.

 

 

More than 6,000 Christians killed by Islamic terrorists in Nigeria since 2015, 1000 in last year alone: Reports

 

The reports published on 18 November titled "Your Land or Your Body" mentioned that more than 6,000 Christians have been killed and 12,000 displaced by members of the Fulani ethnic group since 2015. 

 

DECEMBER 26, 2019

Opindia

 

In a shocking revelation, more than 6,000 Christians have been brutally murdered in the last four years and 1,000 of them in last year alone by Islamic terrorists in Nigeria, reports Fox News.

 

According to a report circulated by Christian news outlets, more than 1,000 Christians have been killed by Fulani herdsmen fuelled by Islamist ideology in the last year in Nigeria.

 

The Islamic terrorist group named Fulani herdsmen have murdered Christians as part of an aggressive and strategic land-grabbing strategy across the Plateau, Benue, Taraba, Southern Kaduna and parts of Bauchi state, said Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART), a British not for profit organisation.

 

The reports published on 18 November titled “Your Land or Your Body” mentioned that more than 6,000 Christians have been killed and 12,000 displaced by Islamic terrorists, members of the Fulani ethnic group since 2015 in Nigeria.

 

“They attack rural villages, force villagers off their lands and settle in their place — a strategy that is epitomized by the phrase: ‘Your land or your blood”. In every village, the message from local people is the same: ‘Please, please help us! The Fulani are coming. We are not safe in our own homes’,” the report read.

 

Nomadic Fulani herdsmen seek to replace diversity and difference with an Islamist ideology which is imposed with violence on those who refuse to comply. It is genocide according to the Nigerian House of Representatives, said Baroness Cox, member of House of Lords, who runs the non-profit organisation.

 

“Something has to change — urgently,” said Cox. “For the longer, we tolerate these massacres, the more we embolden the perpetrators. We give them a ‘green light’ to carry on killing,” he added.

 

As the population in the Sahara Desert continues to expand, there is increasing tension over land-scarcity and the predominantly Christian communities remain an easy target of land-grabbing attacks. Christians are also being targeted and killed by Boko Haram, a jihad terrorist group.

 

Reportedly, the Fulani herdsmen are responsible for the majority of the Christian deaths in Nigeria in 2019. About half of the Christian deaths this year occurred in five separate attacks in Kaduna between January and November, the report said.

 

“The attacks have, on occasion, led to retaliatory violence, as communities conclude that they can no longer rely on the government for protection or justice,” the report said.

 

 

Muslim Extremists Murder Over 30 Nigerian Christians In Devastating Attack

 

Daily Wire

March 1, 2019


Over 30 Nigerian Christians were killed in a brutal early morning attack by radical Islamic Fulani herdsmen, who have been systematically targeting believers living on lands the extremists claim to be their territory.

 

The Guardian reports that the deadly assault occurred at around 4 a.m. near the town of Maro, in Kajuru County of Kaduna state, where the attackers set fire to several buildings, including homes and churches. The extremists shot civilians with rifles as they fled the burning establishments.

 

A member of local church Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) told Morning Star News that members “ran out of the church building as the shooting was going on.” She added, “Many have been killed, and I have not seen my family members since morning. I have escaped out of the area.”

 

Some villagers and local policemen tried to resist the radical Muslim assault but were forced to retreat as the attackers overwhelmed them by sheer numbers and firepower.

 

Kaduna’s local state government condemned the attack in a statement from Samuel Aruwan, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor.

 

“Today, the Kaduna State government was briefed by security agencies of renewed attacks in Kajuru Local Government Area, and in parts of neighboring Kachia Local Government Area,” he said. “The state government has been assured that the security agencies are working assiduously to contain the situation. The government is saddened by these attacks, condemns the perpetrators and urges all residents of the area to support the security agencies in their efforts to protect communities.”

 

The violence was so severe that a nearby boarding school administered by the Evangelical Missionary Society (EMS) evacuated to protect the children.

 

“We evacuated about hundred EMS kids from Kufana for safety,” explained school director Bakari Ibrahim to Morning Star News. “Many of our missionaries working among the Kadara tribe and some in Katari areas have been displaced. Please keep praying for our nation.”

 

Kaduna governor Aminu Tambuwal expressed sadness for the victims and called for more security in the Kajuru and Kachia counties to protect “people’s lives and property.”

 

The state chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria Kaduna chapter Reverend Joseph Hayap said of the attack: “We have appealed to the youths in the area that there must never be any reprisal. We want to give the security operatives in the state the benefit of the doubt to go after the killers. We don’t want any reprisal attack because the circle of violence and killings will continue.”

 

Nigeria has been facing growing unrest as radical Islamic terrorist groups, including the Fulani herdsmen, have been ramping up attacks on Christians, who make up about 51% of the population.

 

In September 2018, Islamic extremists raided Christian homes and murdered 11 civilians in a brutal assault in the city of Jos, the capital city of the Plateau State of the African nation.

 

"When the Fulani herdsmen came, they shot into the house randomly, breaking and forcing their way into rooms, shooting defenseless women and children and anyone in sight," a survivor said at the time.

 

Christian persecution watchdog group Open Doors ranks Nigeria high on the "World Watch List," sitting at number 12 just below Syria.

 


Boko Haram Killed At Least 60 People in Attack in Nigeria, Amnesty International Reports


By AMELIA NIERENBERG / AP

February 1, 2019

 

(DAKAR, Senegal) — Boko Haram has killed at least 60 people in a “devastating” attack on the northeastern Nigeria border town of Rann, Amnesty International said Friday, calling it one of the deadliest assaults by the extremist group in its nearly decade-long insurgency.

 

Fighters on motorcycles drove through the town near the Cameroon border on Monday morning, setting houses on fire and killing people left behind, the international rights group said in a series of Twitter posts. The fighters also chased residents fleeing the “massive attack” and killed several outside town.

 

Amnesty published satellite imagery that it said showed “hundreds of burned structures.” Many likely served as shelters for displaced people who had arrived in recent months seeking protection. Most of Rann is “now destroyed,” the group said.

 

The attack came as Nigeria faces what it has called an extremist resurgence, posing a serious challenge for President Muhammadu Buhari as he seeks re-election in two weeks’ time. His administration once claimed Boko Haram had been “crushed” or “technically defeated,” while the military has faced questions over low morale and support.

Rann also was attacked in mid-January, sending at least 9,000 people fleeing to Cameroon, according to aid agencies. More than 30,000 joined them across the border in late January, the United Nations refugee agency said. Thousands more fled to nearby Chad, the refugee agency said.

 

“Many people were in a state of shock and were clearly distressed by what they had witnessed. Now they have lost all that they have and need absolutely everything,” Hugues Robert, the Nigeria program director for Doctors Without Borders, said following the mid-January attack.

 

A nurse with the medical charity said the normally bustling town was “like a graveyard” following that attack. “There was still smoke drifting in the sky and the fires were still burning in places,” Isa Sadq Bwala said. “All that’s left are piles of ashes.”

 

Far-flung Rann has played a tragic role in Nigeria’s fight against Boko Haram. In January 2017, Nigeria’s air force mistakenly launched an airstrike on a refugee camp in the town because it said the camp was not appropriately marked as a humanitarian base on its maps. Officials and community leaders said between 100 and 236 people were killed.

 

In March of last year, three workers for United Nations agencies were among 11 people killed in a Boko Haram attack on a military base in Rann.

 

Three health workers were abducted. Two have since been killed despite urgent pleas from the aid community to spare their lives.

 


118 soldiers reportedly killed, 153 others missing following Boko Haram attack

 

According to reports, wounded soldiers have also been evacuated to Borno for treatment.

Published: 24.11.2018

Chika Ebuzor

 

The number of soldiers who were killed during the recent Boko Haram attack has reportedly increased to 118.

 

Premium Times reports that a source in the Nigerian Army said that 153 others are yet to be accounted for.

 

On Monday, November 19, 2018, the terrorists invaded a military base in Metele village, Guzamala local government area of Borno State.

 

According to Premium Times, soldiers who were wounded during the attack have also been evacuated to Borno for treatment.

 

Army responds

 

While responding to reports in the media, the Nigerian Army issued a statement saying that the number of casualties published on social media is false.

 

It also described the videos being shared online as old and inaccurate, adding that they are propaganda materials put out by Boko haram.

 

An excerpt of the statement reads: ” It is important for the public to note that the NA has laid down procedures for reporting incidents that involve its personnel who fall casualty in action. Out of respect for the families of our gallant troops, the NOKs(Next of Kins) are first notified before any form of public information so as to avoid exacerbating the grief family members would bear, were they to discover such from unofficial sources.

 

“Furthermore, it suffices to observe that several social media, print and online publications have been brandishing false casualty figures as well as circulating various footages of old and inaccurate BHT propaganda videos and alluding same to be the attack on 157 Task Force Battalion.

 

“Whilst it is understandable how such misinformation can spread in this era of social media frenzy, the spurious circulation of some of these videos only contribute to further propagate the propaganda intent of the terrorists; to misinform the populace and portray themselves as what they are not. So far, the situation is that the location is under control as reinforcing units have been able to repel the terrorists and stabilise the situation.”

 

The recent killing of soldiers by Boko Haram has been condemned by several Nigerians on social media.

 

Most of them also called out the Federal Government for keeping quiet about the issue.

 

President Buhari has however asked the Minister of Defence, retired Brig-Gen. Mansur Dan-Ali, to meet with the Chadian President, Idris Deby over the deterioration of security at the Nigeria – Chad border.

 

 

Dozens of Christians Killed in Muslim Attack on Market in Kaduna State, Nigeria


Church building set on fire in assault that escalated, residents say.

October 22, 2018

Morning Star News


JOS, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Muslims attacked a market in Kaduna state, in north-central Nigeria, on Thursday (Oct. 18), killing dozens of Christians and burning a church building, sources said.


Area residents said a Muslim at the market in Kasuwan Magani, 36 kilometers (22 miles) south of the city of Kaduna, began yelling “Thief!” in the late afternoon in a move calculated to cause pandemonium ahead of an attack on Christians and their homes and businesses.


“A Muslim raised a false alarm about a thief in the market, which caused stampede, and then other Muslims started chanting ‘Allahu Akbar [the jihadist slogan, God is Greater],’ attacking Christians, burning houses and shops belonging to Christians in the town,” area resident Kefas Mallam told Morning Star News.


The Rev. James Moore of the town’s Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), told Morning Star News that the assailants burned down one church building belonging to the Cherubim and Seraphim movement.


“There was an alert of a thief in the market,” he said. “When people heard ‘Thief! Thief!’ they were confused and started running. Unknown to the people, it was a strategy by the Muslim youth to attack the people. They went into killings, looting and burning.”


Moore, who is the area district secretary of the ECWA, said it was difficult to give a definitive casualty figure as the town was in complete lockdown following imposition of a 24-hour curfew the night of the attack. Kaduna Gov. Nasir El-Rufai visited the site in the Kajuru Local Government Area on Friday (Oct. 19) and said 55 people had been killed.


“According to what the police have briefed me so far, 55 corpses have been recovered; some burned beyond recognition,” he said.


Local press reported the violence began as an attack by young men attacking the market that escalated into a clash between “two youth groups of different religion.”


Gov. El-Rufai told reporters that the state government had imposed a curfew in the area and security agencies were restoring calm.


“It cannot continue, we are going to deal decisively with anyone involved in this,” he said. “This country belongs to all of us; this state belongs to all of us. No one is going to chase anyone away. So, you must learn to live with everyone in peace and justice.”


He added that the violence was “totally unacceptable,” and that anyone connected with or even observing the violence would be detained.


“I have charged the security agencies and the authorities here, local and traditional, to ensure that everyone connected with this, whether as a participant, instigator, or even watching while it is going on, is apprehended and prosecuted,” he said.

Area Muslims also attacked Christians on Feb. 26. Luke Waziri, a Christian community leader in Kasuwan Magani, told Morning Star News by phone that during the February attack, 12 Christians were killed.


“And 67 other Christians arrested after that incident are currently facing trial in a court in the city of Kaduna,” he added, lamenting that they were detained without cause by police under the direct control of a Muslim inspector general of police and a Muslim police commissioner.


“The sad thing is that the police are aware that Muslims in Kasuwan Magani have accumulated weapons with the intent to continually attack us, but they are unable to arrest these Muslims,” Waziri said.


Waziri, who is the national secretary of the Adara Development Association (ADA), a predominantly Christian ethnic group in Kaduna state, expressed sadness that while Christians had yet to overcome the trauma of the February attack, Muslims launched an assault on them again on Thursday (Oct. 18).


Christians make up 51.3 percent of Nigeria’s population, while Muslims living primarily in the north and middle belt account for 45 percent.


Nigeria ranked 14th on Open Doors’ 2018 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution.




Crisis in Nigeria as THOUSANDS killed in 'pure GENOCIDE'


THOUSANDS of men, women and children have been killed in Nigeria in what the country's Christian community are condemning as “ethnic cleansing”.


By JOEY MILLAR

Express
June 30, 2018


Last weekend 238 Christians were killed in a number of attacks by militia in Plateau State, a region in the heart of the country.

Campaigners are warning it is just the latest example of “pure genocide” in a country ravaged by religious division.


A joint statement issued by the Christian Association of Nigeria said more than 6,000 Christian worshippers - “mostly children, women and the aged” - had already been killed this year.


They said: “There is no doubt that the sole purpose of these attacks is aimed at ethnic cleansing, land grabbing and forceful ejection of the Christian natives from their ancestral land and heritage.


“What is happening in Plateau state and other select states in Nigeria is pure genocide and must be stopped immediately.”


They said those responsible were being allowed to “go scot free” and said the Nigerian government was wrongly trying to paint the attacks as “farmers/herdsmen clashes”.


The statement said: “How can it be a clash when one group is persistently attacking, killing, maiming, destroying and the other group is persistently being killed, maimed and their places of worship destroyed?


“How can it be a clash when the herdsmen are hunting farmers in their own villages/communities and farmers are running for their lives?”


They said the police service was "skewed" against Christians and even accused the government of being "lukewarm" in its attempts to free the Chibok schoolgirls.


Nigeria is one of the world’s most dangerous countries to be a Christian with anti-persecution organisation Open Doors ranking it 14th on its annual watchlist.


They said Islamic extremism, especially in the north of the country, was leading to “hostility towards Christians”.


Open Doors said: “Believers experience discrimination and exclusion, and violence from militant Islamic groups, resulting in the loss of property, land, livelihood, physical injury or death. This is spreading southwards.


“Corruption has enfeebled the state and made it ill-equipped to protect Christians. Rivalry between ethnic groups and raids by Fulani herdsmen compound the persecution.


“Converts face rejection from their Muslim families and pressure to recant."



Scores killed, homes burned in Plateau State attacks


By Stephanie Busari, CNN

June 25, 2018


Lagos, Nigeria (CNN)At least 86 people have been killed in attacks in central Nigeria, police said, an incident that has the potential to exacerbate ethnic tensions in an increasingly volatile region.


The violence, thought to be carried out by armed herdsmen, flared on Saturday in Jos, the capital city of Plateau State, police said.


"Eighty six persons all together were killed, six people injured, fifty houses burnt," said police spokesman Terna Tyopev.

Violence between the nomadic Fulani herdsmen, who are mostly Muslims, and farmers, who are predominantly Christians, have rocked Nigeria's Middle Belt since 2013 and are becoming more common.


Amid fears of revenge attacks from affected local communities, Simon Lalong, the governor of Plateau, announced that authorities will enforce a curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. in Jos.


Lalong called the curfew "an immediate measure to protect the lives of citizens" in a statement on Twitter and said it will be in effect "until further notice."


He promised to follow up with longer term measures to secure peace in the area.


Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari posted a message on Twitter sending condolences to those affected and appealing for calm.


"The grievous loss of lives and property arising from the killings in Plateau today is painful and regrettable," he said.


"We will not rest until all murderers and criminal elements and their sponsors are incapacitated and brought to justice," Buhari said.


Vice President Yemi Osibajo visited Plateau State on Monday to condole with families and communities affected by the attacks, his aide Laolu Akande said.


Akande said Osibajo met with different parties affected by the conflict in the state to discuss an end to the spate of violence in the state.


The Nigerian President's ability to quell violence in the country is certain to be a defining issue in the upcoming 2019 presidential elections.


Nigeria is already grappling with a decade-long Boko Haram insurgency, which has killed thousands of people and displaced millions internally.


Buhari, who is ethnically Fulani, has been accused of not doing enough to stop the violence and widely criticized on social media for his perceived inaction.


Furious Nigerians have taken to social media to voice their anger at the relative ease at which the herdsmen repeatedly attack vulnerable communities across the Middle Belt.


At least 72 people were killed in January following weeks of violence between nomadic herdsmen and farmers killed Benue State, another central region state. Another 19 people, including two priests, were killed in Benue State in April after a gunmen opened fire at a church, police said.


Buhari visited Benue state to console families and communities affected by attacks earlier this year, but argues that the problem is a wide ranging one that pre-dates his administration.


Buhari said that some of the armed herdsmen were trained by Libya's security services under the country's former ruler, Moammar Gadhafi, who was ousted from power and killed in 2011.


"These gunmen were trained and armed by Moammar Gadhafi of Libya. When he was killed, the gunmen escaped with their arms. We encountered some of them fighting with Boko Haram," in a report on Nigeria's Channels television in April.


Since then, Buhari said the crisis had been "made worse by the influx of armed gunmen from the Sahel region into different parts of the West African sub-region" Buhari said in a conversation with the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby during his visit to London in April.




Boko Haram ambush death toll hits 69


AFP
Updated July 30, 2017


KANO: At least 69 people died in a Boko Haram ambush of an oil exploration team in north-east Nigeria, as three men kidnapped by the jihadists made a video appeal.


Experts said the attack — Boko Haram’s bloodiest this year — underscored the persistent threat it poses, despite government claims the group is a spent force.


“So far the death toll stands at 69,” said an aid agency worker involved in the recovery of bodies after the attack in the Magumeri area of Borno state on Tuesday.


The worker, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said 19 soldiers, 33 civilian militia and 17 civilians were killed.


“The last body was recovered on Friday in the bush in the Geidam district of neighbouring Yobe state, which is several kilometres from the scene of the ambush,” he said. “It shows the victim, who had gunshot wounds, died after trekking a long distance. There could be more such victims in the bush.”


Another source with knowledge of the rescue operation gave the death toll as “70 or more” and also said it was unclear whether all the victims had been accounted for.


The attack hit Nigerian National Petroleum Corpor¬ation (NNPC) staff.


“It’s a confirmation of the boldness and reassurance that Boko Haram has managed to gain over the last six weeks,” said Yan St-Pierre, from the Modern Security Consulting Group.


“They have been attacking more and more military outposts and more military convoys. For them to go after NNPC personnel just shows they don’t fear any military reprisal.


“Basically they have managed to gain enough resources, enough material, to plan ambushes targeted towards high value targets.”

News of the rising death toll came after Boko Haram published a four-minute video in which three men identified themselves as being from the University of Maiduguri.


The trio were part of a NNPC team on a mission to find commercial quantities of oil in the Lake Chad basin.


“I want to call on the acting president professor Yemi Osinbajo to come to our rescue to meet the demand,” one of the men says in the video, which he said was shot on Friday.


He attributed the attack to the IS-supported Boko Haram faction headed by Abu Mus’ab Al-Barnawi, which has vowed to hit military and government targets.


“They have promised us that if their demands are met they will release us immediately to go back to the work we were caught doing,” the man added.


University of Maiduguri spokesman Danjuma Gambo confirmed the identities of the three kidnapped men in the video. “They are our staff but one more is yet to be accounted for,” he said.


Five members of staff from the university — two lecturers, two technologists and a driver — were killed, vice-chancellor Ibrahim Njodi said on Friday.


He told reporters the university had been hesitant to send staff with the NNPC team but had been assured about security.


Nigeria is searching for oil in the northeast to try to reduce its reliance on supplies from the Niger delta, where militant attacks have slashed production.


Kidnapping has been a feature of the Boko Haram insurgency, which has killed at least 20,000, displaced more than 2.6 million and left millions of others on the brink of famine.


Thousands of women and girls have been seized, to be married off to fighters, used as sex slaves or suicide bombers, while men and boys have been made to fight in the Islamist ranks.


The al-Barnawi faction differs from fighters loyal to Boko Haram’s long-time leader Abubakar Shekau in that it disagrees with the indiscriminate targeting of civilians.


On Friday, two suicide bombers struck a camp for displaced people in Dikwa, 90 kilometres east of Maiduguri, killing eight, said local government official Rawa Gana Modu.


In Bama, 70 kilometres southeast of Maiduguri, three young female suicide bombers were killed when their explosives detonated prematurely on Thursday.




Boko Haram leader urges fighters: kill, slaughter and abduct


December 31, 2016


MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Boko Haram's leader is urging his fighters to "kill, slaughter and abduct ... and detonate bombs everywhere," in a new video that denies Nigerian government claims that his Islamic extremist group has been crushed.

President Muhammadu Buhari declared last week that soldiers had driven Boko Haram from its last forest enclave, with fighters on the run and no place to hide.


Abubakar Shekau in a video posted on YouTube Thursday announces he is "well and alive."


Nigeria's military said they seized Shekau's Quran in an assault on Boko Haram's last hideout in the northeastern Sambisa Forest — wanting to indicate he was on the run. The military has at least three times in the past claimed to have killed Shekau, only to have him reappear in a video.




Nigerian Middle Belt state: 800+ Christians killed, 800+ injured, 100+ churches destroyed


Published: Oct. 26, 2016

Worldwatch Monitor


Nigeria’s Middle Belt is the scene of ever-continuing attacks on Christian farmers by mainly Muslim Hausa-Fulani herdsmen, including this past week where attacks have occurred in both Kaduna and Benue states. Now a recent report about another state in the Middle Belt, Nasarawa, shows that it too has been the scene of serious violence against Christians. In the period January 2013–May 2016, 826 Christians were killed and 878 injured. There were 102 churches destroyed or damaged.


Beside these, 787 houses were destroyed, as well as nine shops, and 32 motorised vehicles. Many families were completely deprived of their livelihoods. Around 21,000 Christians were reported as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in different camps inside and outside Nasarawa. Due to the difficult security situation, the authors of the in-depth fact-finding report are convinced that they were only able to report part of what really happened.


Their Nigeria Conflict and Security Analysis Network (NCSAN) report shows that Nasarawa has been engulfed in various forms of conflict since its creation in 1996. Many researchers, policy makers and government officials have explained the conflict in terms of politics, ethnicity and economic contestation over land and resources. In most cases, the religious component of the conflict has been completely downplayed, marginalised, excluded or neglected.


However, field research conducted by NCSAN on the conflicts which occurred from 2013 to 2016 reveals that Christians have been specifically targeted. Emerging evidence suggests there is a strategic agenda to target and persecute ethnic groups that are predominantly Christian.


The targeting of Christians appears to be carried out by the Hausa-Fulani herdsmen and by deliberate government policies to marginalise Christians and Christian communities. This is evident in political power-sharing and domination through traditional rulership. Islamic identity tends to give Muslims undue advantage over the affairs of the state. Indeed, state government policies are crafted to favour Islam and Muslims. The ongoing persecution of Christians in Nasarawa, like many other places in northern Nigeria, has been ignored.


This study unearths the drivers of persecution against Christian communities in Nasarawa and, importantly, it provides the basis for a policy proposition that encourages the need to build common citizenship among the people.


The report is the third in a series published by Open Doors' World Watch Research unit. The first report highlighted non-Boko Haram violence against Christians in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria. The second report investigated in greater detail violent conflict in Taraba from 2013 to 2015.




Dozens slaughtered and church burned down in latest Fulani massacre


Ruth Gledhill

CHRISTIAN TODAY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

27 April 2016


Up 40 people or more have been slaughtered in a new atrocity by an armed force of Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria's Enugu State, according to local reports.


In the run-up to the massacre, local news sites commented on the arrival of 500 heavily-armed herdsmen in and around seven villages in the Nimbo area.


Ten homes were razed by arson, cars and motorcycles were destroyed, animals killed and Christ Holy Church International also burnt to the ground, the Nigerian news site Vanguard reported.


One young man died when the bus he was travelling in was set fire to near the church.


One victim, Kingsley Ezugwu, speaking to Vanguard from his hospital bed, said: "I was coming out from the house when I heard the community bell ringing. I was going with a friend to know what the bell was all about, only to see about 40 Fulani herdsmen armed with sophisticated guns and machetes.


"They pursued us, killed my friend and shot at me several times but missed. They caught up with me and used machetes on me until I lost consciousness."


When the attackers realised he was still alive, others were summoned to finish him off. He managed to crawl away and said he was helped to hospital by a "good samaritan".


Many survivors fled the villages.


A spokesman for Rochas Okorocha, the local governor, said: "Our problem in this country is that whatever happens is given an ethnic colouration and that makes the solution to such problem somewhat difficult."


According to the Igbo Youth Movement, Fulani herdsmen have murdered more than 700 Nigerians in the last 10 months, with the Federal Government taking no action to halt the killings.


Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar, a defence spokesman in Nigeria, told IBTimes that security forces were investigating the killings. "Security agencies will issue a statement soon, investigations are ongoing," he said.


He was unable to confirm the numbers killed in the latest attack. Estimates in Nigeria range from 20 to 48 people.

 

 

Boko Haram kills nearly 200 in 48 hours – Militants unleash female suicide bombers North East Nigeria

 

July 5, 2015


KANO: Boko Haram carried out a fresh wave of massacres in northeastern Nigeria on Friday, locals said, killing nearly 200 people in 48 hours of violence President Muhammadu Buhari blasted as "inhuman and barbaric". The militants have staged multiple attacks across restive Borno state since Wednesday, gunning down worshippers at evening Ramadan prayers, shooting women in their homes, and dragging men from their beds in the dead of night.


A young female suicide bomber also killed 12 worshippers when she blew herself up in a mosque in Borno. While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, Boko Haram has used both men and young women and girls as human bombs in the past. And as night fell, Nigerian troops battled "hordes of Boko Haram gunmen" who seemed set on attacking the state capital Maiduguri, the birthplace of the extremist Islamist movement.


"President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the latest wave of killings... describing them as most inhuman and barbaric," the presidency said in a statement. The bloodshed is the worst since Buhari came to power in May, vowing to root out the insurgency that has claimed more than 15,000 lives. Up to 50 armed men on motorbikes stormed the village of Mussa in the latest atrocity on Friday, shooting villagers and burning their homes, survivor Bitrus Dangana said. "They killed six people in the village and they chased the inhabitants into the bush, firing at them... 25 people were killed in the bush," he said. Another survivor, Adamu Bulus, confirmed 31 people had been murdered. It was the fourth time that Boko Haram had attacked the village in the past year, local youth worker Sunday Wabba told AFP, describing how they "killed everyone on sight".


Bodies 'lying unattended'


News of the massacres first emerged on Thursday, when survivors told of raids on three different villages in Borno state the previous evening that left at least 145 people dead and many houses burnt to the ground. On Friday, fresh details of the killings emerged from a resident of Kukawa, near lake Chad, the worst-affected village. Baana Kole told AFP that he and others had managed to escape into the bush where they spent the night, before returning to bury the dead, only to find that the militants had laid mines everywhere. "Some residents who hid in trees saw them planting the mines and alerted us when we returned to the village and started burying our dead," he said. "So many dead bodies are still in Kukawa lying unattended. We had to abandon them because we could not carry them with us."


Less than 24 hours later, a girl blew herself up in a mosque in Malari village, more than 150 kilometers away from Wednesday's attacks."The bomber was a girl aged around 15 who was seen around the mosque when worshippers were preparing for the afternoon prayers," Danlami Ajaokuta, a vigilante assisting the military against Boko Haram, told AFP.

 

"People asked her to leave because she had no business there and they were not comfortable with her in view of the spate of suicide attacks by female Boko Haram members. "She made to leave but while the people were inside the mosque for the prayers she ran from a distance into the mosque and blew herself up," he added an account corroborated by resident Gajimi Mala.


Boko Haram 're-grouped'


Early Friday morning, as people were sleeping, Boko Haram militants dragged men out of houses in Miringa village and shot them for escaping forced conscription. They "picked 13 men from selected homes and took them to the Eid prayer ground outside the village where they opened fire on them," resident Baballe Mohammed said, adding 11 died and two managed to escape. He and another resident said the victims had been targeted because they had fled their home village after Boko Haram tried to force them to join their ranks.


Then on Friday evening, local vigilantes said Nigerian troops were battling Boko Haram fighters in Zabarmari village, only 10 kilometers (six miles) from Maiduguri, trying to prevent an apparent rebel attempt to enter the city. With heavy gunfire and more than 10 loud explosions reported, local resident Zanna Shehuri told AFP, "Boko Haram are now in Zabarmari trying to come into Maiduguri but are facing stiff resistance from soldiers." The armed group has intensified its campaign of violence since Buhari came to power on May 29, launching raids, explosions and suicide attacks that have claimed over 450 lives.


The spike in violence has sparked concern that earlier victories claimed by the armies of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon in the region are being eroded. The four countries-all of which border Lake Chad, a focal point of Boko Haram unrest-launched offensives against the militants early this year as it became apparent that the armed group was making big gains in Nigeria. They managed to push the militants out of captured towns and villages, but the recent attacks highlight that Boko Haram is not defeated. A new regional fighting force comprising 8,700 troops from Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Benin is due to deploy at the end of the month. AFP

 

 

30 killed at crowded mosque by 2 young female suicide bombers in northeast Nigeria

 

6-22-2015
The Associated Press

Hamilton Spectator

By Haruna Umar


BAUCHI, Nigeria — Two girls blew themselves up on Monday near a crowded mosque in northeast Nigeria's biggest city, killing about 30 people, witnesses said.


It is the fourth suicide bombing this month in Maiduguri, which is the birthplace of the Boko Haram Islamic extremist group.


Fishmonger Idi Idrisa said one teenager exploded as she approached the mosque crowded with people from the nearby Baga Road fish market, performing afternoon prayers during the holy month of Ramadan.


The second teen appeared to run away and blew up further away, killing only herself, he said.


Civilian defence fighter, Sama Ila Abu, said he counted at least 30 corpses as he helped to collect the dead.


Both men said there were many injured being sent to the hospitals.


Boko Haram has kidnapped hundreds of girls and women and the numbers of female suicide bombers has raised fears that it is using the captives in its campaign.


A military bomb disposal expert has told the AP that most bombs carried by girls and women have remote detonation devices, meaning the carrier cannot control the explosion.


Boko Haram has stepped up attacks since Nigeria's new president, Muhammadu Buhari, announced the military command centre is moving from the capital Abuja to Maiduguri in Borno State.


The attacks come as Nigeria and its neighbours are preparing to strengthen a multinational army that this year drove Boko Haram out of the towns and villages where it had set up a so-called Islamic caliphate.


But bombings and hit-and-run attacks have continued, along with cross-border raids.


On Thursday, a group of the extremists attacked two towns in neighbouring Niger, killing at least 40 people, the government said.


In its first attack on Chad, suicide bombers a week ago simultaneously attacked two buildings including the national police academy in N'Djamena, the Chadian capital, killing at least 33 people.

 

 

Boko Haram Targets Catholics: 100,000 Homeless From Islamist Insurgency, Christian Charity Says

 

By Morgan Winsor on May 12 2015

International Business Times


More than 100,000 Nigerian Catholics have been left homeless by Boko Haram’s six-year insurgency in northeast Nigeria and another 5,000 have been killed, a Christian charity said Tuesday. As a result, there are now 7,000 widows and 10,000 orphans in the Maiduguri diocese, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) told Premier.


A report by the charity also found some 350 churches have been destroyed in the diocese, which encompasses Borno and Yobo states as well as part of Adamawa. More than half of the Maiduguri diocese’s parish centers, chaplaincies and church-run primary schools have been deserted by Nigerian Catholics and many of them are occupied by Boko Haram militants, who control up to 85 percent of the diocese territory.


“People are very scared, and those who are able to return home find there is nothing left,” Rev. Father Gideon Obasogie, the diocesan director of social communications, told ACN, according to Catholic Herald. “A life lived with much fear is terrible.”

The Nigerian army has declared military victories and territorial gains against the Islamist extremists in recent months. But Boko Haram’s insurgency has practically wiped out villages and communities in the northeast. More than 1.5 million people forced to flee their homes in Nigeria were still living in internal displacement centers as of April. Boko Haram has killed more than 13,000 civilians since 2009, the United Nations refugee agency has said.


Boko Haram has sworn loyalty to the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS or ISIL. ISIS officially accepted its pledge in March, making Boko Haram the largest and most lethal jihadi group to be inducted into the Islamic State group’s network. The militants seek the establishment of a state in northeast Nigeria based on strict Islamic law.

 

 

Muslim preacher charged in Nairobi court with incitement to kill

 

MONDAY, MAY 18, 2015

Daily Nation


An Islamic preacher who police linked to the Garissa University College attack was on Monday charged in Nairobi with inciting Muslims to kill non-Muslims.


Hassan Mahat Omar faces a 30-year jail term if convicted.


The prosecution said he committed the offence on or before March 6, 2015 at Al-Hidaya Mosque in Nairobi’s Eastleigh estate.

The offensive utterances — although not included in the particulars of the charge sheet which was read out in court — are allegedly contained in a compact disk titled Sheikh Hassan and which the police say the preacher personally published.


Mr Omar is facing another case in which he is charged alongside his wife Fordosa Mohammed with being found in possession of two hand grenades.


The case is pending judgment at the Milimani Law Courts.


On Monday, prosecutor Daniel Karori oppose his release on bail, saying he was a terror suspect.


“He faces a serious charge of inciting Muslims to kill non-Muslims and another case of being found in possession of explosives, of which point to the involvement of the accused person in offences against the public.


“We also ask the court to take judicial notice of the numerous terrorist attacks that target non-Muslims and deny him bail,” Mr Karuri submitted.


ARRESTED A MONTH AGO


Mr Omar was arrested a month ago and detained for investigations over his alleged involvement in the Garissa attack in which 148 people, including 142 students, were killed.


The police had claimed he financed one of the worst terrorist attacks in the country and that he had been in “constant” communication with Mohammed Kuno, a leader of Al-Shabaab and the suspected mastermind of the Garissa attack.


He had also been accused of “radicalising” the youth and facilitating their exodus to Somalia for recruitment into Al-Shabaab.

His lawyer Mbugua Mureithi on Monday protested that the present charge was not related to what he had been arrested and detained for a month ago.


“There was also an averment that he had obtained his identity card fraudulently but the matter has been through a full trial at the Chief Magistrate’s Court in Kibera, where he was acquitted in 2012,” Mr Mbugua told the court, while opposing the prosecution’s request to have Omar detained till the new case is heard and determined.


The lawyer said the present charge was defective as “no verbatim statement of incitement” was stated neither has Mr Omar been proven to be the maker of the offensive CD.


Senior Principal Magistrate Grace Mumasi deferred the ruling on whether the suspect may be released on bond or not to Friday, May 22.

 

 

Scores Dead from Attacks on Church, Christian Areas in Northeast Nigeria

 

Suspected Boko Haram rebels kill nine volunteers guarding worship service.

June 3, 2014


JOS, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Suspected Boko Haram Islamists killed nine Christians guarding a church service in Borno state on Sunday (June 1), hours before a bombing of a Christian area in neighboring Adamawa state resulted in at least 48 deaths, Christian leaders said.


In Borno, at least 10 gunmen attacked a Church of the Brethren in Nigeria (Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria or EYN) congregation during worship in Attagara village, near Gwoza town on northeastern Nigeria’s border with Cameroon, they said. The gunmen killed nine EYN members volunteering as a security team, area Christian leaders told Morning Star News, and a local witness reportedly said area men mobilized, killed four of the Boko Haram attackers and arrested three others.

One area Christian leader said the attackers were a small part of 200 assailants who have invaded Attagara and other predominantly Christian villages around Gwoza the past two weeks, destroying homes and churches.


“Our church in Attagara was attacked also on Sunday,” said Dr. Rebecca Dali, adding that church members there and in surrounding villages sent distress calls to her husband, Samuel Dali, who is president of the EYN. “There have been 24-hour-a-day attacks on Christian communities of Attagara, Hawul, and Gwoshe around the Gwoza mountains.”


She said her husband made efforts to contact military officers in the Borno capital of Maiduguri but received no positive response.

“My husband eventually contacted the presidency in Abuja, and a military helicopter was sent to the area to contain the attack on these Christian villages,” Dali said. “Reports we received from the area show that the soldiers drafted there to repel attackers could not get to the villages on claims that they did not receive orders from their command headquarters in Maiduguri to fight the insurgents.”


Recent attacks on Attagara, Gwoshe, Hawul, and other Gwoza villages have resulted in the destruction of 36 church buildings in the area, Dali said. “The Boko Haram Islamists have destroyed 36 churches in Gwoza area, including that of Attagara attacked on Sunday,” she said. “We now have only two churches that have not been affected.”



Paul Gadzama, a native of Borno state who is director of Relief, Empowerment And Development Missions (READ Missions), said the attacks on the Attagara EYN church and other villages in Gwoza are part of a strategy to eliminate Christians.

“Boko Haram gunmen have continued to attack these areas inhabited by Christians with the sole aim of pushing them out to enable establish an Islamic country,” Gadzama told Morning Star News in Jos. “So far they have taken over so many villages, forcing our people to flee to Cameroon.”


Titus Pona, chairman of the Borno state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, told Nigeria’s Vanguard newspaper that the Gwoza area is more than 80 percent Christian. The Nigerian Army is reportedly ill-equipped and/or unwilling to thwart terrorist attacks, and Pona reportedly said that after many Christians were killed during the attacks of the last two weeks, villagers trying to defend themselves killed 37 Boko Haram rebels on Sunday (June 1).


Explosion in Adamawa


Suspected members of Boko Haram on Sunday (June 1) also bombed a predominantly Christian area in Mubi, Adamawa state, with casualties higher than official figures, according to area Christians.


Explosives detonated at 6 p.m. in the Kabang area of Mubi, in northeastern Nigeria, killed and wounded patrons at a bar for viewing televised soccer as well as people at a nearby soccer game, said Dali, a resident of Mubi.


“There were some of our church members who were in the vicinity of the bomb attack, and they said at least 48 persons were killed in the attack,” she said. “Those who died are mostly Christians. Some Christian youths were also playing soccer near the bombed area, and they were affected by the bombing.”


Other witnesses reportedly said at least 45 people died in the blast, which also damaged several shops.
EYN is headquartered in Mubi.


“Our church, EYN, lost two of her members in the bomb attack, and they are one John, a member of the New Life for All Gospel Team [evangelistic outreach] in the church, and Miss Godiya John, a member of the Girls Fellowship in the church,” Dali told Morning Star News. “As I speak to you now [11 a.m. Monday, June 2], their funeral service is going on in the church.”

The government figure for those killed was 18, according to Director of Defense Information Maj.-Gen. Chris Olukolade. Initially he reportedly made reference to the bomb exploding at a soccer field, but at a press conference with other security officials on Monday (June 2) he referred to it as an explosion at the TV-viewing bar as he advised soccer fans to be vigilant during the upcoming World Cup. Olukolade reportedly said 19 people were wounded from the blast, though witnesses said dozens were injured.


Near the site of the explosion is the headquarters of the Special Operations Battalion of the Nigerian Army that is trying to counteract Boko Haram violence, though soldiers are reportedly advised not to frequent the bar after 4 p.m. It was not clear at press time how many of the victims were soldiers.


Witnesses reportedly said explosives were hidden in a pair of three-wheeled vehicles outside the bar. The military’s Olukolade reportedly said two suspects were arrested, but that one of them later died in a hospital from injuries sustained in the attack.


Adamawa Gov. Murtala Nyako described the bomb attack as “barbaric, repugnant and unacceptable.”
Mubi and surrounding areas have been under attack by Boko Haram Islamists fighting to impose sharia (Islamic law) throughout Nigeria; the rebels seek more strict enforcement of sharia in the country’s northern states, where it is already in place applicable to the region’s Muslim population.


In the recent attacks, five members of the EYN church were killed in Saminaka village, near Mubi, while nine other church members were killed in nearby Njilang village, Dali said.


“In these attacks, houses of our church members were destroyed, and they were displaced, as many of them were forced out of their villages,” she said.


Boko Haram (“Western education is a sin”), the name residents of Maiduguri, Borno state originally gave the group that calls itself, “The Congregation of the People of Tradition for Proselytism and Jihad” (from the Arabic, Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad,), has killed thousands of civilians since 2009.


The Nigerian government declared a military state of emergency in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe in northeastern Nigeria on May 14, 2013. Nigeria outlawed Boko Haram on June 4, declaring their activities illegal and “acts of terrorism,” and the U.S. State Department designated the group as a terrorist organization on Nov. 13.


With some members of the Nigerian group coming from Cameroon, Chad and Niger, Boko Haram has grown into a heavily armed militia with ties to Al Qaeda. The State Department’s 2012 Terrorism report ranked it the second deadliest terrorist group worldwide, after the Taliban.


Christians make up 51.3 percent of Nigeria’s population of 158.2 million, while Muslims account for 45 percent. Those practicing indigenous religions may be as high as 10 percent of the total population, according to Operation World, so the percentages of Christians and Muslims may be less.




Lands Drenched in Innocent Blood: Boko Haram Declares War Against Christians


By Deacon Keith Fournier

3/9/2012
Catholic Online


A spokesman for Boko Haram announced on Thursday they are planning  a "war on Christians". They told a local reporter  it would occur in the "next few weeks". The spokesman said the group "will launch a number of attacks, coordinated and part of the plan to eradicate Christians from certain parts of the country. We will create so much effort to end the Christian presence in our push to have a proper Islamic state that the Christians won't be able to stay." The blood of the martyrs seems to be flowing more frequently these days as militant Islamic terrorism increases.


ABUA,Nigeria (Catholic Online) - On Wednesday, March 7, 2012, six armed men killed a customs official, a five year old boy and at least two others. They did so intentionally and in cold blood. They did so in the name of Allah.


They set fire to a police station, a government building and two churches, one Catholic and one belonging to the Christian Brethren. They blew up vehicles, motorcycles and terrorized a town for three hours - all, once again, in the name of Allah.


This Islamist group has been terrorizing northern Nigeria for two years. They claimed responsibility for their evil and horrific behavior without any remorse or regret. On Thursday, March 8, 2012, they also killed a British and an Italian hostage. None of the reports indicated how the murders occurred but, the track record of similar Jihadis points to beheadings. We have only to remember Danny Pearl. In fact, we MUST remember Danny Pearl!


The President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, properly condemned the murders. The two victims were innocent engineers who had been taken by these evil Islamists in May of 2011. Efforts to negotiate for their release were unsuccessful. So too were efforts to rescue them. Their families are in mourning and we should pray for them.


We reported on the horrible bombing outside of St Theresa's Catholic Church on Christmas Day. That evil act, perpetrated by these Islamic terrorists who proudly refer to themselves as the "Nigerian Taliban," was followed by an ultimatum issued to Christians in Northern Nigeria to leave in three days or face further violence.


 A spokesman for "Boko Haram" told reporters "our Muslim brothers are advised to return to the north, because we have evidence that they will be attacked. We also issue a three-day ultimatum to the southerners living in the north of Nigeria, to leave. We have serious indications to suggest that the soldiers only kill the innocent Muslims in areas where government has declared a state of emergency. We will face them decisively to protect our brothers."


That was nonsense. There have been no attacks on Muslims in Nigeria. In fact, some Muslims who properly reject the violence of this evil group have been victim of their terror. The phrase "Boko Haram" means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language. These Islamist terrorists hate all things "western" and Christian. They are Jihadiss who have expressed their intention to forcibly establish an Islamic Caliphate and impose Shariah Law on everyone.


They are also called  al-Sunnah wal Jamma - or "Followers of the Prophet's Teachings". They refer to themselves officially as Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad, which means "people committed to the propagation of the prophet's teachings and Jihad". They are murderers and terrorists who use an appeal to religion to attempt to justify evil.


 After the Christmas bombings, a spokesman claimed responsibility in an interview with a local newspaper called The Daily Trust saying "There will never be peace, until our demands are met. We want all our brothers who have been incarcerated to be released; we want full implementation of the Sharia system and we want democracy and the constitution to be suspended."


The terrorist group issued a three-day ultimatum for Christians to leave the North of Nigeria and has called for all Muslims living in the South to move North. They have signaled their intention to fight government troops and to expand their violent attacks against Christians and others who resist their Jihad.


After the Christmas bombing Vatican Radio reported that Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos, the Vice President of the Nigerian Bishop's Conference, urged Nigerians to not to allow their country to be overtaken by terror: "Churches have been destroyed and lives were lost and there is no sign that this might end, until the government intervenes decisively."


"We continue to ask Christians to be vigilant and aware of the issue of safety when they go to church and even in their own homes. We have appealed that there be no retaliation and we continue to preach peace, hoping that all of us in Nigeria, Muslims and Christians, we will be able to work and live happily together. This is our position: no violence, no retaliation. We want to live in peace".


Sadly, these evil Jihadists have no such desire.


Archbishop Kaigama added, "We continue to appeal to reason, for dialogue. It is possible for Muslims and Christians to reason together. We know that there are other forces behind the so-called Boko Haram. We do not even know who the Boko Haram really are, what they want, where they get their arms from. What is certain is that there are some forces behind them, either in Nigeria or abroad, who want to profit from instability in our country, but we will not give in to terrorism, we will not allow these fundamentalists to ruin our country".


On the day after Christmas, the Feast of St Stephen the Deacon and Proto - Martyr, a visibly burdened Pope Benedict XVI spoke to the faithful gathered for the Angelus prayer. He spoke from his heart, urging prayers for those whose, "lands are drenched in innocent blood."


The Pope reminded the faithful that St Stephen gave his life for his Christian faith. He spoke of his heroic witness, noting that even as he was being stoned to death he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" and begged forgiveness for his accusers. He extolled the witness of the early martyrs of the Church, a topic which he has frequently addressed in the last few years.


Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office said in a statement, "Regretfully the attacks at the Church of Saint Theresa in Abuja, timed to coincide with Christmas Day celebrations, are once again the expression of the cruelty of blind and absurd hatred devoid of any respect for human life and represent an attempt to generate and fuel further hatred and confusion."


"We express our closeness to the suffering of the Church and of all the Nigerian people who have been affected by violent terrorism even during these days that should be of joy and peace," he added. "While we pray for the victims, we also express the hope that this senseless violence will not weaken the will for peaceful cohabitation and dialogue in the nation."


The word "Martyr" derives from a Greek word which means "witness." The Catholic faith proclaims that the shedding of one's blood in fidelity to Jesus Christ is the final witness to the Faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that:

"Martyrdom is the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith: it means bearing witness even unto death. The martyr bears witness to Christ who died and rose, to whom he is united by charity. He bears witness to the truth of the faith and of Christian doctrine. He endures death through an act of fortitude" (CCC #2471 - 2473)


What is happening to our brethren in Nigeria - Christian martyrdom at the hands of militant Jihadist Islamists - must not be overlooked. The threat of such violent, evil, Jihadism is not decreasing. If anything, it is increasing. For someone who remembers the cold war, even to the point of drills where we hid under our desks, it calls to mind the great need for a National resolve.  It makes the threat of militant Marxism look mild in comparison.


The victims of this evil are often being killed precisely because they are Christians. The blood of the martyrs seems to be flowing more frequently these days as militant Islamic terrorism increases and establishes a new beachhead in Africa. For Catholics and other Christians, we cannot - we must not- fail to act. Africa is one of the great centers of the renewal of the Church in the Third Millennium. We are living in a new missionary age.


The words attributed to Tertullian in the Second Century of the Church still hold out their promise: "The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church."  We are living in a new missionary age. Pray for our brethren in Africa. Also, understand the implications of the evil designs of these Jihadists. They hate us. If you want to read a source which "pulls no punches" in their reporting on this growing threat, read Jihad Watch.(http://www.jihadwatch.org/)


A spokesman for Boko Haram announced on Thursday they are planning  a "war on Christians". They told a local reporter  it would occur in the "next few weeks."  The spokesman said the group "will launch a number of attacks, coordinated and part of the plan to eradicate Christians from certain parts of the country. We will create so much effort to end the Christian presence in our push to have a proper Islamic state that the Christians won't be able to stay."




Brits Warned As Nigeria Death Toll Hits 178


VOICE OF AMERICA

1-29-2011

Britons are being warned against travelling to parts of Nigeria as the death toll from a series of terror attacks rose to 178.


Radical Islamist group Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for bombings in the northern city of Kano.


Witnesses have described seeing dozens of bodies piled up outside the main morgue after attacks at police stations, state buildings and on streets, beginning on Friday afternoon.


Authorities enforced a 24-hour curfew in the city, with many people remaining home as soldiers and police patrolled the streets and set up roadblocks.


The Foreign Office updated its travel advice for the African country, advising against travel to Kano.


The FCO website said: "We advise against all travel to Kano whilst the curfew remains in force and for those in Kano to remain vigilant and to exercise caution.


"DFID (Department for International Development) and British Council have limited their operations in Kano whilst the curfew is in place."


An official at the city's main morgue said dead bodies had been arriving since Friday night.


Soldiers and police officers swarmed throughout the city as the death toll rose.


Boko Haram is campaigning to implement strict Sharia law across Nigeria, a multi-ethnic nation of more than 160 million people.

The assaults were apparently in response to a refusal by authorities to release their members from custody.


The group, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege", was responsible for at least 510 killings last year alone.


Police spokesman Olusola Amore said attackers targeted five police buildings, two immigration offices and the local headquarters of Nigeria's secret police.


The Nigerian Red Cross said volunteers continued to offer first aid to the wounded and take the seriously injured to local hospitals.


Ramadan violence erupts in Nigeria


By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)

8/30/2011
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)


Ongoing violence in Nigeria has claimed the lives of at least nine people in Nigeria. Clashes between Christians and Muslims in the divided country are common and the latest round of violence occurred as Muslims were ending their celebration of Ramadan.


ABUJA, NIGERIA (Catholic Online) - The country of 155 million people is 50 percent Muslim and 40 percent Christian with a remaining 10 percent following tribal belief systems. This divide has led to bloody clashes between Christians and Muslims who want the country to respect their religious beliefs and reflect their perspective on the nature of government. Notably, several Muslims have gained attention called for the imposition of Sharia law penalties, such as stoning for adultery, in Muslim areas.


The most recent violence took place in the city of Jos, northeast of the capital. Reportedly, a gang of armed Christian youths attacked Muslim worshippers. In addition to the dead, over 100 were reported injured. Dozens of cars were burned.


Trapping the Muslims with roadblocks, the gang is reported to have used guns, machetes, rocks, and arrows to perpetrate their violence. As many as 20 children may be among the dead. Hospitals reported filling up with the wounded who mostly suffered wounds from thrown objects.


Allegedly, Christian "gangsters" then told witnesses the attacks were revenge for Muslim bombings that took place on Christmas Eve of 2010.


This violence is added to the recent string of attacks from Muslim extremists who are rebelling against the Nigerian government from strongholds in the northern part of the country. On Friday, that group detonated a bomb at UN offices in the capital, Abuja. The attack killed 23 people.


Generally, Nigeria remains peaceful as the different religious groups coexist in separate parts of the country, with Muslims dominating the north and Christians in the south. However, periodic bouts of violence can last for months as each side makes reprisals against the other for previous attacks.


Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has condemned both acts of violence as his government struggles to maintain peace in the sometimes bitterly divided country.




Christians targeted in fatal stealth attacks


Muslim terrorists implicated in multiple murders


August 13, 2011

WorldNetDaily
By Michael Carl


There's no pattern and little evidence, but periodically, and without warning, another Christian is shot or stabbed – almost always fatally – in the Nigerian town of Maiduguri.


Experts on the persecution of Christians in that part of the world say the Nigerian Muslim terrorist group Boko Haram has been implicated in the murders, which have happened intermittently in the Christians' own homes.


Open Doors USA President Carl Moeller says Boko Haram's motive for the killings is simple: The Muslim group wants to take over in the north.


"As we know, one of the goals of Boko Haram is to create a Shariah, Islamic law, society in Nigeria. Their intentional use of this sort of terroristic activity is designed to further their ends of that," Moeller explained.


"Our co-workers in the city have said basically [Boko Haram] continues to use attacks to disrupt the public peace and have people literally flee, particularly the Christians, flee from these cities," Moeller said.


Moeller said the violence is highly organized and has a very clear objective.


"It's more specifically something like religiocide or religious cleansing. They recognize no other possibility of society based on anything other than Shariah law," Moeller said.


International Christian Concern analyst Jonathan Racho agrees that the group wants to establish Islamic law in the north. He also says that while Boko Haram pushes Shariah, they also try to win influence by portraying Christianity as a "foreign religion."

"Their strict interest in Shariah law is why they look at Christians and say Christians promote Western ideas and are opposed to the Islamic way of life," Racho said.


But Racho added that Boko Haram has an even more sinister purpose.


"One of their goals is to eliminate Christianity," Racho said.


Moeller agrees that one of Boko Haram's objectives is to eliminate Christianity from Nigeria. He also says the group's level of extremism pits them against the government of Nigeria.


"They're at odds with the government of Nigeria and other parts of Nigeria where even moderate Muslims would admit the presence of Christianity. Boko Haram is truly one of those groups that wants to see Christianity eliminated from the country of Nigeria," Moeller said.


Racho added that Christians aren't Boko Haram's only target.


"Even moderate Muslims have been killed by this group," he said.


Racho added that there's one feature of the current series of attacks that sets it apart from other acts of anti-Christian violence.

"They kill a Christian and after a few days they kill another Christian. After a few days they kill another Christian. We don't know how long it's going to continue. We are really alarmed by these killings," Racho said.


Moeller agreed that Boko Haram is using fear as a weapon on the region's Christians.


"There's a great deal of ongoing tension and Boko Haram continues to exploit and play on the fears of people in the area," Moeller said.


Moeller also believes that many Americans don't understand the dynamics of Nigeria's religious rivalry.


"The question of motivations is almost lost on us in America because we don't really grasp the intensity of the religious hatred that goes on in the division between [Muslim] northern and [Christian] southern Nigeria," Moeller explained.


While both Moeller and Racho agree that the aim of the terror campaign is to force Christians out of northern Nigeria, Racho believes the one-at-a-time method has another purpose.


"This campaign is carefully organized to avoid media attention. That's why they're not burning down houses or villages. They're very systematic, and they don't want the media attention. They're succeeding in sowing fear in many of the Christians and many have already left their homes," Racho stated.


Moeller said the terrorist group is more than willing to take advantage of the departure of more Christians.


"They move in where Christians have vacated and take over the social and political control of that area," Moeller said.


Moeller added that the terror group has its sights on the predominantly Christian southern half of the country as well. He saaid that's especially tragic because of the growth of the Christian church in the south.


"The southern part of that country is one of the most vital, powerful, growing churches in all the world. So, this is a formula for an extreme amount of confrontation, violence and death in the area," Moeller said.


Racho said Nigerian security forces have moved into the northern area in an attempt to restore order.


Moeller added that the government is attempting to prosecute the perpetrators when they are able to find and capture them. However, he said Nigeria's Christian president Goodluck Jonathan is acting to avoid the appearance of showing favoritism to Christians.


"He has to promote general peace because extremists in his country would exploit any support that he would show to Christians as confirming their inaccurate statements that the president is actually trying to eliminate Islam from the country," Moeller stated.


One of the government's responses to the terror attacks is to send a six-man fact-finding mission to Borno state, but even with the fact-finding mission, Moeller believes the government's options are limited.


"I can clearly see the connection between what Boko Haram is trying to do and that the way the government's hands are somewhat tied," Moeller said. "If Boko Haram stops its attacks, then the government is able to restore public order."


Moeller added that the government has some tough choices if Boko Haram continues its terror campaign.


"When they (the group) continue to provide more fuel for terrorism and more terroristic activities then the government has to be cautious in its response to that. Otherwise, the government will provide justification for the Boko Haram message. It's a very precarious situation for the government there," Moeller explained.


The Nigerian clash between Muslims and Christians is just one of many similar confrontations going on across Africa.


There are reports nearly half a million people, including many Christians, have been driven from their homes in Ivory Coast following the internationally sanctioned installation of a Muslim as president.


Other clashes have been reported in Kenya and Egypt.


WND recently has reported that Egyptian Christians say they are under siege following the Muslim Brotherhood's integration into power.


Reports document attacks by armed gangs on about 60 Coptic Christians during a protest at a national television headquarters and suggest that the Egyptian army has been part of the aggression.


Christians have been demanding without success that the government prosecute the perpetrators of the attack and the burning of the Mar Mina church in the Cairo neighborhood of Imbabba on May 8.


A dozen people were killed and more than 200 were injured there.


Egyptian human rights activist and journalist Wagih Yacoub was an eyewitness to the violence and describes the assault on Christians as an ambush.


"The army left. They were not there and they did nothing after the attacks. Other criminals came and attacked the Christians. We asked for the rescue and the army came after a few hours," Yacoub related.


In Kenya, President Obama campaigned for the Muslim challenger, Raila Odinga, while Obama was a U.S. senator.


Appearing with Odinga at campaign stops, Obama gave speeches accusing the sitting Kenyan president of being corrupt and oppressive.


But Odinga lost, despite attracting Muslim votes through a secret Memorandum of Understanding with Muslim Sheik Abdullah Abdi, the chief of the National Muslim Leaders Forum of Kenya. In the memo, Odinga promised to rewrite the Kenyan constitution to install Shariah as law in "Muslim declared regions," elevate Islam as "the only true religion" and give Islamic leaders "oversight" over other religions, establish Shariah courts and ban Christian proselytism.


After his loss, Odinga accused the incumbent president of rigging the vote and allegedly incited his supporters to riot. Over the next month, some 1,500 Kenyans were killed and more than 500,000 displaced – with most of the violence led by Muslims, who set churches ablaze and hacked Christians to death with machetes.


Odinga eventually ended up as prime minister of Kenya through a power-sharing arrangement that was enacted in an effort to appease the rioters.




Churches bombed and Christians attacked as violence spreads in Nigeria


March 23, 2011, (PCTV Newsdesk)


Churches bombed and Christians attacked as violence spreads in Nigeria ahead of Presidential elections. Police warn worship areas are targets. Fears that jihad has been launched to create chaos and force state of emergency. Archbishop of Jos fears city could be overrun.


There are warnings that growing violence in Nigeria is being instigated by extremists who want to stir up religious violence and create a state of emergency ahead of the Presidential elections. The Archbishop of Jos fears the city could be overrun and is calling for increased security.


A blast on Sunday killed two suspected bombers, but failed to catch the churchgoers for which it was probably intended. In other attacks in Jos three Christians were killed and six stabbed.


These are just the latest in a series of attacks which have claimed hundreds of lives over the past year. A partner of Release International, which serves persecuted Christians, believes the aim behind the attacks is to whip up sectarian violence ahead of the April elections.


The Stefanos Foundation points to a newspaper statement calling for jihad allegedly published by a Jos Muslim Elders Forum on December 30 2010 – days after the latest round of violence erupted.


It said: ‘Muslims in the State shall ensure that a few months before General Elections jihad will be declared in the State, which cannot be controlled even by security agencies, with great slaughter and massacre, which the Federal Government will have no option than to declare a State of Emergency in Plateau.’


‘We’re deeply concerned about these latest attacks,’ says Release CEO Andy Dipper. ‘The continuing targeting of Christians appears to be a deliberate move to provoke a backlash and sectarian violence – an attempt to destabilise the community ahead of the elections. Release urges Nigeria’s Christians to stay vigilant, but to refuse to be drawn into a spiral of violence.’


Archbishop of Jos, the Most Rev Dr Benjamin Kwashi told Release: ‘No-one is willing to accept that the Christian church is under attack. It is difficult for people to understand that Jos could be overrun. The government has been negligent, and the world will not help.’


He acknowledged that some Christians had been driven to defend themselves and were in danger of being drawn into a spiral of violence.


‘Even the Muslims are not safe – though we have been working very hard to keep them safe in our area of town.


‘Revenge I will never support. But those who wish to defend themselves, I cannot stop. People have had enough of this. It’s been going on for 30 years. The government must do more to provide security for everybody.


‘But you know, the only real answer is prayer. I trust God to defend us. I have been threatened with death personally three times. In all three times, the Lord has rescued me.’


There were two failed bomb attacks against churches on Sunday. Release has been told the bombers may have been trying to get round heightened security by targeting worshippers as they were walking home.


The likely targets were members of the Church of Christ In Nigeria (COCIN) and of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in Nasawara Gwom, a mainly Christian district of Jos, in Nigeria’s central Plateau State. It’s been reported that two prominent Christian politicians were attending the services.


According to reports men rode into the area on a motorcycle. Witnesses say they dropped the bomb, which exploded, killing them and damaging a nearby shop. An angry crowd turned on another motorcyclist who was acting suspiciously, and killed him. It’s not known whether he was, in fact, another bomber, or a passer-by caught up in the ensuing panic.


Tensions had been heightened by earlier warnings in Jos that bomb attacks against churches were likely.

Despite increased security in advance of next month’s Presidential elections militants managed to plant a second bomb on Sunday behind the headquarters of the Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministry. This was discovered and made safe.


According to Nigerian media reports many churches ended their services early after the bomb blast rang out. But Release partners deny reports that Christians are fleeing the city. ‘People are concerned,’ says a spokesman for the Stefanos Foundation, ‘but they are also very security conscious. Besides, they have lived here all their lives – where would they go?’

Police routinely search worship areas before services, but the approach taken by the motorcycle bombers on Sunday may have been to circumvent that. Commissioner of Police Abdelrahaman Akano told the Nigerian News Service, ‘We are not neglecting the fact that worship areas are targets.’


Sectarian violence has been increasing in Nigeria during the build-up to the elections on April 9. Last week security forces intercepted a truck load of explosives and ammunition in Jos.


Plateau state is on the dividing line between the predominantly Muslim north and the Christian south of the country. There is a history of conflict between different ethnic groups in the region vying for control of fertile land.


In March 2010, militants massacred more than 500 Christians near Jos. Bomb attacks followed on Christmas Eve, attributed to an Islamist sect known as Boko Haram, which means ‘Western education is sinful’.


On March 13, Boko Haram claimed responsibility for murdering a moderate Muslim cleric in Maiduguri, Borno State, who had been advocating non-violence.


Meanwhile in Bauchi state, there are reports that upwards of 4,000 people have been driven from their homes after night attacks by armed Fulani that began on March 10. Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports the attackers burnt down 13 churches in villages, along with upwards of 450 homes. The militants, numbering around 2,000, are said to be wearing police uniforms.


Bauchi and Borno states have imposed Islamic Shari’a law – despite Nigeria having a secular constitution. Christians in both states have been driven from their homes.

 

 

Nigeria Arrests 164 Over Massacre

 

Voice of America
21 March 2010

 

A Nigerian police spokesman says 164 people have been arrested for alleged involvement in violence near the town of Jos earlier this month that killed more than 200 people.


The spokesman said Sunday that 41 of those arrested will be charged with terrorism, which could result in life in prison.


The others, he said, will be charged with illegal possession of firearms, rioting and other offenses.


Witnesses to the March 7 violence said that ethnic Fulani herdsmen, who are Muslim, attacked mainly Christian villages south of Jos, setting homes on fire and slashing people with knives and machetes.


The U.N. special investigator on freedom of religion has said the massacre could have been prevented had authorities addressed deep-seated tensions between Muslims and Christians.


Jos has a history of sectarian violence.  The city sits on the dividing line between Nigeria's mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.

 

 

TIMELINE: Ethnic and religious unrest in Nigeria

 

Thu Jul 30, 2009


(Reuters) - Security forces in northern Nigeria on Thursday battled the remnants of an Islamic sect following days of unrest which have killed more than 180 people and displaced thousands.


Following is a timeline of major religious and ethnic violence in Nigeria, a country divided into at least 200 ethnic groups and about evenly split between Muslims and Christians:


2000 - Thousands killed in northern Nigeria as non-Muslims opposed to the introduction of Islamic sharia law fight Muslims who demand its implementation in the northern state of Kaduna.


September 2001 - Christian-Muslim violence flares after Muslim prayers in Jos, with churches and mosques set on fire. According to a September 2002 report by a panel set up by Plateau state government, at least 915 people are killed in days of rioting.


November 2002 - Nigeria decides to abandon the Miss World contest in Abuja. At least 215 people die in rioting in the northern city of Kaduna following a newspaper article suggesting the Prophet Mohammad would probably have married one of the Miss World beauty queens if he were alive today.


May 2004 - Hundreds of people, mostly Muslim Fulanis, are killed by Christian Tarok militia in the central Nigerian town of Yelwa. Survivors say they buried 630 corpses. Police say hundreds were killed.


-- Muslim and Christian militants fight bloody street battles later the same month in the northern city of Kano. Christian community leaders say 500-600 people, mostly Christians, were killed in the two days of rioting by Muslims.


February 2006 - A week of rioting by Muslim and Christian mobs claims at least 157 lives. The violence begins in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, when a Muslim protest against Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad runs out of control. Revenge attacks follow in the south.


November 2008 - Clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs triggered by a disputed local government chairmanship election kill at least 400 people in the central city of Jos.


February 2009 - The governor of Bauchi state imposes a night-time curfew on Bauchi city on February 22, a day after clashes kill at least 11 people. At least 28 people were seriously wounded and several houses, churches and mosques burned down.


July 2009 - Boko Haram, which means "education illegal," stages attacks in the northeastern city of Bauchi on July 26 after the arrest of some of its members. More than 50 people are killed and over 100 arrested, prompting the Bauchi state governor to impose a night curfew on the state capital.


-- Boko Haram, which opposes Western education and demands the adoption of sharia in all of Nigeria, threatens further attacks against security forces.


-- Police in Maiduguri, home of Boko Haram's leader Mohammed Yusuf, say security forces killed 90 sect members on July 27. In neighboring Yobe state, police recover the bodies of 33 sect members after a gun battle near the town of Potiskum on July 29. Some 30 people also have died in Kano.



  

Death toll over 300 in Nigerian sectarian violence

 

By AHMED SAKA

November 29, 2008

 

JOS, Nigeria (AP) — Mobs burned homes, churches and mosques Saturday in a second day of riots, as the death toll rose to more than 300 in the worst sectarian violence in Africa's most populous nation in years.

 

Sheikh Khalid Abubakar, the imam at the city's main mosque, said more than 300 dead bodies were brought there on Saturday alone and 183 could be seen laying near the building waiting to be interred.

 

Those killed in the Christian community would not likely be taken to the city mosque, raising the possibility that the total death toll could be much higher. The city morgue wasn't immediately accessible Saturday.

 

Police spokesman Bala Kassim said there were "many dead," but couldn't cite a firm number.

 

The hostilities mark the worst clashes in the restive West African nation since 2004, when as many as 700 people died in Plateau State during Christian-Muslim clashes.

 

Jos, the capital of Plateau State, has a long history of community violence that has made it difficult to organize voting. Rioting in September 2001 killed more than 1,000 people.

 

The city is situated in Nigeria's "middle belt," where members of hundreds of ethnic groups commingle in a band of fertile and hotly contested land separating the Muslim north from the predominantly Christian south.

 

Authorities imposed an around-the-clock curfew in the hardest-hit areas of the central Nigerian city, where traditionally pastoralist Hausa Muslims live in tense, close quarters with Christians from other ethnic groups.

 

The fighting began as clashes between supporters of the region's two main political parties following the first local election in the town of Jos in more than a decade. But the violence expanded along ethnic and religious fault lines, with Hausas and members of Christian ethnic groups doing battle.

 

Angry mobs gathered Thursday in Jos after electoral workers failed to publicly post results in ballot collation centers, prompting many onlookers to assume the vote was the latest in a long line of fraudulent Nigerian elections.

 

Riots flared Friday morning and at least 15 people were killed. Local ethnic and religious leaders made radio appeals for calm on Saturday, and streets were mostly empty by early afternoon. Troops were given orders to shoot rioters on sight.

 

The violence is the worst since the May 2007 inauguration of President Umaru Yar'Adua, who came to power in a vote that international observers dismissed as not credible.

 

Few Nigerian elections have been deemed free and fair since independence from Britain in 1960, and military takeovers have periodically interrupted civilian rule.

 

More than 10,000 Nigerians have died in sectarian violence since civilian leaders took over from a former military junta in 1999. Political strife over local issues is common in Nigeria, where government offices control massive budgets stemming from the country's oil industry.

 

Associated Press Writer Bashir Adigun in Abuja, Nigeria, contributed to this report.

 

 

Nigeria: Muslim Violence Forces Christian Withdrawal from Peace Talks

 

By Michael Ireland

Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

 

NIGERIA (ANS) -- Violence in Kaduna which has claimed 1000 Christian lives and destroyed 63 churches just this year, "must stop" says the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN),in a report from the U.K-based Barnabas Fund.

 

For three years, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has engaged in government-backed peace talks in the state of Kaduna with its Muslim counterpart, Jamutu'ul Nasir Islam (JNI). However, after the recent spate of attacks in which Islamic militants burnt down nine churches in Makarfi, CAN leaders say the peace process has been undermined.

 

As a result of the ongoing violence against Christians, CAN withdrew from the talks April 9 saying, "If we continue to dialogue with people when we doubt their sincerity and commitment to the peace which we are honestly pursuing, then the consequences will be grave, to our peril and enslavement."

 

North and Middle Belt Nigeria is plagued with frequent outbreaks of rioting between Muslims and Christians. Over 10,000 have been killed in such sectarian violence since 2000 when 12 Muslim-majority states in North Nigeria adopted Islamic law (shari'a).

 

Further details, quotes and photos on this and other stories may be available for news editors on request to Barnabas Fund.

Barnabas Fund works to support Christian communities mainly, but not exclusively, in the Islamic world where they are facing poverty and persecution.

 

Barnabas Fund, The Old Rectory, River Street, PEWSEY, Wiltshire, SN9 5DB, UK. Tel: +44(0)1672 564938, Fax: +44(0)1672 565030, E-mail: info@barnabasfund.org Web: www.barnabasfund.org

 

 

Nigeria tense after clashes


6/10/2005 12:08  - (SA)  

 

Sokoto - Despite the restoration of relative peace in the Sokoto, Nigeria after three months of sectarian clashes, tension still envelops the city as mutual resentment and suspicion between the two feuding sects linger, residents said on Friday.

 

The clashes were between followers of rival Shia and Sunni Muslim sects.

 

At least seven people were killed and 53 houses were burnt or vandalised in the clashes that erupted ostensibly over control of the central mosque but which faction leaders, government officials and the police blame on politicians opposed to the state government.

 

Shia sect spokesperson Sidi Mannir said: "The attacks have stopped but we are not sure if the state government will be able to arrest the masterminds of the attacks and punish them, given their status and connections."

 

"Only the arrest and prosecution of the masterminds of the attacks will ensure lasting peace because if the arrests are limited to the thugs, the masterminds can recruit new squad from the army of hooligans around," he added.

 

Following the arrest by the police of Umar Dan-Maishiyya, a Sunni cleric suspected of fuelling the clashes, a Sunni mob went on rampage and burnt down a local government secretariat in Sokoto which led to a police crackdown and arrests were made.

 

Heavy police presence

 

Police patrol vehicles have been combing the dusty, refuse-littered streets since Friday, arresting thugs suspected of involvement in the clashes with the help of local vigilantes and rival groups did not participate in the violence.

 

"The vigilantes are only helping the police to effect the arrests because they know every thug and where to find him. They help our men access the deep recesses of the old city where the suspects live," said Sokoto state police spokesperson Muhammad Umar Dakin-Gari.

 

Fear of revenge

 

The involvement of the vigilantes in the clampdown on suspected trouble makers has been a source of concern to inhabitants of the city who fear gang fights between rival groups once the police are off the streets.

 

"My fear is the youths that have escaped arrest may not take it lightly on their rivals who sold them out to the authorities," Abdullahi Buhari, a civil servant, said while inspecting the carcass of his car that was burnt along with 24 others when Sunni rioters set the local government secretariat ablaze.

 

"The police operation has been hijacked by thugs and vigilantes who have taken the law into their hands, terrorising opponents and innocent people in the name of assisting the police. This could have a negative effect in the long run," said Sidi Alhaji.

 

The Shia followers view the formation of a reconciliation committee of clerics and traditional chiefs by the Sokoto sultan Muhammadu Maccido with distrust, alleging the committee is made up of people who sponsored the violence.

 

Edited by Fidelia van der Linde

 

 

Nigeria swings between bloodshed and harmony

 

11 Apr 2007

By Tume Ahemba

 

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, April 11 (Reuters) - Nnamdi Okpala believes he still has a future in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri despite being a victim of repeated bouts of ethnic and religious violence.

 

Okpala is a Christian from the Ibo ethnic group, a minority in Maiduguri where Muslims from the Kanuri group dominate. He has lived and traded in the largely Islamic north for 21 years.

 

Last year, his shop was among dozens belonging to Christian Ibos that were looted and torched during riots in which Muslim mobs killed about 30 Christians.

 

"The crisis was the worst I have seen in all my stay here. We had to run for our dear lives after the rioters overwhelmed the police. By the time we came back, our shops had been looted and burnt," said Okpala, sitting with a group of Ibo traders in front of a row of shops, some still blackened by soot.

 

News of the killings in Maiduguri sparked reprisal attacks in the Ibo heartland in the southeast. Christian mobs there turned on northern Muslim traders, killing about 100 of them.

 

The Maiduguri riots and the tit-for-tat violence in the southeast were typical of Nigeria's volatile mix of ethnic diversity, religious rivalry and complex politics.

 

The ostensible cause of the riots was Muslim anger over the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. But many local people said the violence was instigated by politicians because Maiduguri was scheduled to host a public hearing about a plan to extend the president's tenure, which was unpopular there.

 

Such eruptions of violence are not uncommon in Nigeria, where human rights groups estimate at least 15,000 people have died in religious or ethnic fighting since 1999 when elections returned Nigeria to democracy after three decades of almost continuous army rule.

 

But that statistic belies a broader picture of usually peaceful cohabitation in Nigeria, whose 140 million people are split into about 250 ethnic groups and divided roughly equally between Muslims and Christians.

 

Okpala said the violence, when it occurs, is orchestrated by politicians and radical Islamic preachers who use ethnicity and religion to manipulate people for their own cynical ends.

 

MUSLIM PRESIDENT

 

For now, he places his hope in the expected election on April 21 of a northern Muslim to be the next president after eight years of Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian and an ethnic Yoruba from the southwest.

 

The two main candidates, Umaru Yar'Adua and Muhammadu Buhari, are both Muslim from Katsina state in the north.

 

"These senseless killings will reduce when a northerner is president because his Muslim brethren will see him as their own man and won't want to cause trouble for his government," said Okpala.

 

Obasanjo is due to step down next month after elections marking the first transition from one elected leader to another since independence from Britain in 1960.

 

The major parties have nominated Muslim flagbearers from the northern part of the country in the spirit of an unwritten agreement by the political elite that the presidency alternates between the north and the south.

 

"There is no cause for alarm because a reasonable Muslim president may even be better than a bad Christian president," said Reverend Nevin Mshelia, secretary general of the Christian Association of Nigeria's branch in Maiduguri.

 

Obasanjo has implemented economic reforms that have won praise from Western powers and the private sector, but many northerners feel they have exacerbated an economic imbalance between the south and the poorer north.

 

"Obasanjo's government has empowered the south and neglected the north," said Audu Maishanu, a 59-year-old car and real estate dealer, sheltering under a tree from the scorching sun in Maiduguri, on the fringes of the Sahel.

 

"You can hardly get petrol at any filling station in the north. It has been so for eight years," he said, pointing at a group of teenagers hawking fuel in jerrycans by the roadside.

 

Maishanu said: "Almost all the textile industries in the north have shut down. Anyone that Allah chooses as the next president will surely reverse all this."

 

Borno, where Maiduguri is located, is one of 12 northern states that imposed provisions of Islamic sharia law into the criminal justice system in 2000, a politically motivated move by state governors that alienated Christians and sparked violence.

 

But in Maiduguri, residents of all ethnic and religious backgrounds gather in the evenings at Wurali, an area the size of a soccer field filled with shanties, to drink beer or local gin despite sharia restrictions.

 

"Here there is no religion or ethnicity, we are all united by Bacchus," said a senior Muslim police officer, asking not to be named.

 

 

NIGERIA: Children dying needlessly from measles and other preventable diseases

 

11 Jul 2007 20:00:07 GMT

Source: IRIN

 

LAGOS, 11 July 2007 (IRIN) - Measles is a preventable disease yet when it strikes in Nigeria it finds a ready pool of victims most of whom are children.

 

In June more than 50 children died while another 400 were hospitalised in Nigeria's northeast Borno state following a measles outbreak.

 

The viral disease, transmitted both by air and by bodily fluids, was first reported on 19 June in the village of Njimtilo in the outskirts of the Borno state capital Maiduguri, and then quickly spread to five adjoining local areas including Konduga, Jere, Damboa, Bama and metropolitan Maiduguri.

 

Health officials have frequently blamed low immunisation rates for such outbreaks, as well as outbreaks of polio, diphtheria and tuberculosis. A 2005 World Health Organisation (WHO) survey found that 72 percent of measles cases in Nigeria occurred in children under five years old, three-quarters of whom had not been immunised.

 

Measles can strike as much as 90 percent of an un-immunised population.

 

Despite Nigeria's oil wealth only 12.7 percent of children under five years old are fully immunised against childhood diseases. That rate is among the lowest rates anywhere in the world, according to WHO.

 

One reason for the low coverage, WHO says, is the decrepit health services sector which lacks funding and proper infrastructure and management.

 

Emeka Iwobi, a paediatric doctor based in Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, told IRIN that poverty and ignorance also play a part. "Most of those who need [vaccines] are too poor to afford them or may not know they need them,"

 

Some 70 percent of the population of 140 million lives on less than US $1 a day, many in unhygienic conditions that favour the spread of disease.

 

Most people often lack access to basic medical care. Nigeria was 187th out of 191 countries in a WHO global ranking of performance of health systems, coming ahead of only DR Congo, Central African Republic, Myanmar and Sierra Leone.

 

The worst affected states in Nigeria are those in the Muslim north. Immunisation efforts in the region have suffered major setbacks because some radical Muslim preachers there are suspicious of Western medicine. The preachers have claimed that the polio vaccination programme was part of plot to reduce the Muslim population.

 

In 2004 authorities in the mostly Muslim state of Kano suspended polio vaccination for 10 months to conduct tests to determine if the vaccines contained sterilising agents or the AIDS virus, as critics had alleged.

 

In other parts of northern Nigeria communities systematically boycotted efforts to immunise their children.

 

"The polio boycott has had a ripple effect on immunisation efforts of other childhood diseases," said a senior official of the National Programme on Immunisation who spoke on condition of anonymity.

 

"We can't make much progress unless we overcome the negative perception," he said.

 

 

Nigerian Sunnis, Shiites clash after cleric shot

 

The Associated Press

Published: July 19, 2007

 

SOKOTO, Nigeria: Clashes between Muslim sects left at least one dead after the shooting of a popular cleric in northern Nigeria, witnesses said Thursday. The cleric later died.

 

An Associated Press reporter saw the corpse of one man who had been beaten to death by a mob after being accused in the shooting of Sunni cleric Umar Danshiya, who is well-known for his anti-Shiite sermons, at a mosque in the capital of the desert state of Sokoto on Wednesday.

 

Nura Mohammed, who was taking the cleric home by motorbike taxi, said that three gunmen on motorbikes shot the cleric in the forehead after he finished leading a morning prayer.

 

The sultan of Sokoto, the spiritual head of Nigeria's Muslims, announced on Thursday that Danshiya had died that morning after lapsing into a coma. Sultan Mohammadu Sa'ad Abubakar appealed for calm, saying on local radio stations: "Do not take the law into your own hands ... the security agencies are investigating."

 

The body was being washed in preparation for burial in accordance with Islamic rites, the sultan said. At the news of Danshiya's death, several of his supporters cut branches from the trees with machetes and fixed them to their vehicles, a common form of protest in Nigeria.

 

Earlier, a mob of Danshiya's followers wielding sticks and machetes attacked several Shiites in retaliation for the attack on Danshiya. Nigerian soldiers and police set up roadblocks and patrolled the streets on Thursday with rifles and tear gas.

 

Nigeria's 140 million people are roughly equally divided between Muslims and Christians. The country is the frequent scene of ethnic and religious clashes. Thousands of people have been killed since the end of military rule eight years ago. Residents say that ethnic or political differences are often exploited by powerful local figures for economic and political reasons.

 

Most Nigerian Muslims are Sunni, as are most Muslims throughout the world. The Sunni-Shiite doctrinal split dates to the early days of Islam, and tensions between the sects are not unusual.

 

Associated Press Writer Salisu Rabiu contributed to this report from Kano, Nigeria

 

MAIN INDEX

 

BIBLE INDEX

 

HINDU INDEX

 

MUSLIM INDEX

 

MORMON INDEX

 

BUDDHISM INDEX

 

WORD FAITH INDEX

 

WATCHTOWER INDEX

 

MISCELLANEOUS INDEX

 

CATHOLIC CHURCH INDEX